The Soulless
by Anubyte
Summary: The undead have overrun the world, but the U.S. isn't going down without a fight. The Rot have left their dead cities and have begun to move through the green zones. If the military can't stop the coming hordes, there will be no where else to run to.
1. Prepare for Entry

The Soulless

Author's Introduction: This is my first attempt at fan fiction. I have read many great stories and have seen many great movies. One of my Favorite genres was the Zombie End of the World type story. As I read and watched so many, I started to think to myself, "Wow wouldn't this be cool if this happened too, or wouldn't this be cool if this happened instead." So, instead of critiquing other peoples work, I decided to try one of my own. I have created a hybrid of "Zombie Rules" in my world that seem more realistic to me, based off of the popular Romero series and other fan fictions and movies I have read or seen. Please feel free to give me your honest opinions and enjoy.

_How had it come to this? How could we have not seen what was happening right in front of our noses? So many have died. So much has been lossed. Things have changed. Never again can we look at our world and hope for piece, progress or even safety that so many took for granted in the old days. A terrible price has been paid for our arrogance and ignorance. It will continue to be paid, and they…… will collect._

"_Damn it's cold up here_." This was the first thing that ran though Cpl. Justin Delion's mind as he rappelled down the line onto the roof of the 30 story office building. As his feet hit the ground, he disengaged the line and immediately brought up his M4A4 to the roof access door and took a knee. Behind him came the noise of four more pairs of boots hitting the ground.

The other four soldiers quickly spread out in a fan to each of side of Justin, weapons at the ready, scanning the green hued night through their NVDs.

To the left of Justin, Staff Sergeant Daryl Thurman, the Search and Rescue Squad's chalk leader began the SitRep. "thhhhh….Raven 4, this is Shadow 6, all boots on the ground, no immediate contact, Over", he reported to the Blackhawk above. "thhh Shadow 6, Raven 4, night vision shows no Rot on the roof at your location. We are proceeding on decoy mission and will await your evac transmission. Happy Hunting, Over". "Roger that Raven 4, Over and Out," Thurman replied.

"Delion, take point. Helem, Trecose, back him up. Thompson, with me," Thurman whispered loudly. The squad moved forward in a tight Pentagon formation, a new tactic that allowed each soldier to turn his back to the others and provide an open field of fire around them while not having to worry about one of those things sneaking up behind anyone. Of course, this was no good in a small area such as a hallway but for wide open ground it was perfect.

Justin quickly but calmly moved forward as Helem moved behind and to his left and Trecose came behind to his right. Specialist Shamir Helem, was Justin's best friend since Jr. High, he had joined the Army alongside Justin and went through Boot Camp, Infantry and Air Assault School with him. The two were like brothers and had survived the blood bath that was Philadelphia together, and had made it to a Federal Evacuation Center or FEC before the city fell. Helem had his SPAS-12 semi-auto shotgun held in the ready position as he softly called "On your left", to Justin.

"On your right", Justin heard from behind him as Private First Class Fiore Trecose announced his position holding ready his UMP-45 watching for any previously unseen movement. This was Justin's first mission with him but he had found out previously that Trecose, as chance would have it, was from the Philadelphia area as well. The young kid of 19 years old had watched his entire family die as they fought to get to the FEC. He was National Guard but had had the same training as the two friends. He was also known to fly off the handle during engagements. He would try and kill as many Rot as he could until he was completely out of ammo, and even then attack them with nothing but his 14 inch Sub Hilt Bowie. His behavior was frowned upon by the commanders, but his effectiveness in clearing out an entire area on his own and saving other's lives allowed him some slack. Justin had just guessed that Trecose was just trying to avenge his family by any means necessary, but the kid made him nervous. He would have to keep an eye on him.

After the two rear guards called their ready position, the squad moved faster to the roof's access door. Speed played an important role on this mission as the longer it took them the more Rot they would have to contend with. While a few were easily handled, they had a tendency to swarm and when that happened nothing less then an armored tracked vehicle was getting away.

"Prepare for entry", Thurman called out as they came to the door. Justin moved to the left of the door, weapon never leaving the door's direction. Helem followed him but kept his weapon facing left and leaned his back against Justin's. Trecose moved off to the right to cover that side while Sergeant Thompson, the last squad member stood in front of the door stowing his H&K MP-5 in a modified hip holster and removing his 12 Gauge Mossberg Bulldog shotgun from his back and pointing it at the door lock.

Thurman stood back, M-16/M-203 combo in the ready position, facing at the door. Distant flashes in the night sky drew Justin's eyes back to the Blackhawk in the distance. He knew that nothing was wrong; the helicopter had flown off a few city blocks to drop flares and draw the Rot away. The plan was to get the attention of the immense number of the Rot and keep them from encircling the building and possibly overwhelming them inside if they were able to get past any of the barricades the survivors must have up. He could see the flares slowly drifting down towards the city streets, like slowly falling white pulsating stars against his light green enhanced field of vision. There was no other noise he could pick up besides the strong cold winter wind howling at them, being as high as they were. For that he was grateful. He and the other knew too well the horrible sounds you could hear in any of the old major cities. At the very least you would have nightmares almost every night. At the worst, you would eat a bullet.

In that second he had taken his eyes off the door, and glanced around Thurman noticed it and growled at him, "Corporal, get your fucking head back in the game. They know what they fucking need to do. You fucking better worry about what you need to do."

Justin flashed him a look of death but understood that he had made a mistake. Any unfocused second could mean death to someone. "Roger that Sergeant".

"And the rest of you cock manglers. We got possible survivors inside. They gotta either be fucking super lucky or be bad ass mofo's to still be alive in a city this big. So watch your fire and try not to get friggin shot by any of them," Thurman cautioned.

SSGT Thurman was a mystery to Justin. The Chalk leader obviously knew what he was doing but no one on the squad, except may be for Thompson, knew the guy's story and Thompson wasn't the talking type. All Justin could find out was that the guy was thirty four years old and didn't take shit from nobody.

"Is that Understood?" Thurman looked at each of them and received a quick nod. "Ok, Thompson, check the door."

Thompson leaned forward with his left hand and tried the knob. "Sergeant, the doors unlocked." Justin quickly gazed toward him. He had learned Thompson was with Thurman already when the other three had joined the team. The 23 year old Sergeant originally came from the 101st Airborne Division stationed at Ft. Campbell, Kentucky. After two tours in Iraq, Thompson had finally come home to settle down and get some well deserved rest when the first incidents came on the television. While the other three were fairly new to the search and rescue effort, he had already undergone four missions with SSG Thurman. Justin had found that he immediately respected the man.

"Yeah I can see that," Thurman hissed. "Good, less noise. Get ready."

"Here we go again," Thompson whispered to himself. Justin couldn't help but give a small smile. This was the fun part.

"One…," the tensing up of all the soldiers was very visible. Five highly trained killers were about to go to work. "Two….Go," Thurman commanded.

A/N: Well my first chapter. What do you think? I know it was pretty long and they hadn't even gone in yet, but I was trying to quickly introduce the team and their current situation. Next Chapter should be up soon. _Entry._


	2. Entry

**Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to anything other then my Original Characters.**

"GO!" On SSG Thurman's word, Thompson yanked open the door, bracing his foot against it, holding it open. In same second he had both his hand back firmly on his weapon pointing into the darkness, Thurman behind him and to the left likewise aiming into the dark portal.

The pair's night vision goggles instantly began to use what little ambient light was available giving them a green hued version of reality that illuminated an empty staircase stretching down 15 feet to another landing.

After seeing nothing other then the infrared laser beams, originating from their weapons attachments, slicing through empty space, Thompson simply stated, "Clear, front."

On Thompson's word, Justin began his entry, moving swiftly through the opening, Helem coming in behind him. Thurman and Thompson both dipped their weapons downward so they would not sweep their squad members with their muzzles and followed them in.

As Trecose came in last he closed the door and stuck a thin piece of paper into the slit between the frame and door. This would tell them on the way back out if that door had been open while they were gone. This could mean the roof was no longer secure and their evac could become a disaster.

As Justin rounded the corner, with Helem still at his back, leading to the next steps down, they confirmed that the next flight was clear. "Ok people, silenced weapons only. We don't want them all coming to our show if we can help it," Thurman stated. Thurman and Justin already had silencers attached to their rifles, but Helem had to put his shotgun on his back and pull out his M-9 Berretta equipped with silencer and IR laser pointer. Trecose was never issued one for his UMP-45, so he also had to draw his sidearm that was also an M-9. Thompson, like Helem had to stow his shotgun and draw his MP-5 again.

As the squad all gave Thurman a ready, he signaled to continue. Justin began to move his way down the stairs with the squad in tow. He hated these kinds of operations in large buildings. There were two many weak points, too many doors that couldn't be secured. He remembered the briefing the Platoon commander had given him not 4 hours before hand.

_Captain Reinhold had lain out the operational plan in the barrack's day room. There were five survivors held up in an office building near the center of downtown Denver. After surprised looks from the squad, emanating from the disbelief that people could have survived for so long in that city, as it was one of the worst as well as one of the first to fall, he explained that the survivors had barricaded themselves on one half of the 20__th__ floor. That floor had held one of the tenant companies cafeterias and they had lived off the stores in the kitchen. They were surrounded, but for some reason the Rot had stopped trying to get in after they had been quiet for a while. The group had started on the second floor with 13 people, one being a Cop that they had let in after his blockade had been swarmed. It was the cop's radio that the last 5 had used to contact the last air sweep of the city. They were ordered to land on the roof of the building and work their way to the 20__th__ floor were contact was last made. There was no further contact after that, and the guess was the radio battery had died. The survivor on the other end had explained that it was low, so there was still a chance that they were still ok._

"_They must have been through hell," _thought Justin. The squad quietly made their way down, checking landing after landing on the staircase not bothering with the doors on each floor as there was no way to secure them effectively nor quietly. As he cautiously turned the corner leading down to the 22nd floor, a horrible choking aroma hit his senses. It was the stink of the Rot, the stink of dead and decaying bodies. He waved his left hand in the air, like waving Hi sideways to let the squad behind him know, if they didn't already, that he had picked up the smell of death.

As they approached the 21st floor, they still had not heard the tell tail moans of the Rot, just the increasing rotten smell. Justin finally saw the first signs, a dark black stain stretching from the Door to the 21st floor past the wall and to the left. He thrust his left hand toward the stain to let those behind him know he had seen something. He cautiously moved to the right of the stairwell and pied around the wall to the next staircase. Then he saw the source of the large black stain. A body was lying on the floor with it torso facing the door and its right leg hanging off the landing down the next set of steps. The torso was missing its right arm which was lying over to the side and had a fire ax stuck in the back of its head. He could tell that the body couldn't have been more then a few weeks old as its condition told its age to him.

"Sergeant, Got a dead Rot fuck here. Looks like someone was able to defend themselves," Justin reported.

"Yeah, but why would the dumbass leave the ax?" Helem asked.

"Look at the clothes, this thing used to be a cop, maybe whoever nailed him decided whatever weapon it had on it was a better choice," stated Justin.

"Ok, cut the chatter. If it's not a threat, move on." Thurman ordered.

They moved down without further incident to the 20th floor and prepared to enter the door to the office area. "Ok, Thompson and Helem. I need you two to stay here and make sure this landing stays clear. We don't need to run into any of those bastards when we are getting out of here," Thurman ordered.

"Roger that," Thompson replied as he and Helem took up defensive positions. Helem covered the steps leading down and Thompson took the steps leading up. Justin gave Helem a look and got a smile in return. He knew Helem was happy as hell he got such an easy assignment. He silently mouthed a fuck you at Helem and received a wider grin together with the universal hand signal for the same in return.

Justin and Thurman lined up against the wall while Trecose made him self ready to check the door. As he slowly turned the handle while pulling very slightly, he found that the door, like the roof was unlocked. Justin saw this and thought to himself, _"Boy this place has some shitty security."_

Thurman nodded at Trecose and he opened the door quickly and braced it with his left boot while aiming his pistol into the hallway on the other side. "Clear", he said.

Justin, waiting for the instruction, finally heard in his ear, "Ok, go, go, go."

**A/N: The Rot of course is the new age term in my world for Zombie. That will be mentioned later on in the story as only the secluded survivors left in the lost cities and zones know them as zombies.**

**Please R/R.**


	3. Rotten Surprise

"Go, go, go" Thurman called. Justin moved through the door turning left with Thurman on his heels turning right instead, Trecose bringing up the rear and choosing to go right, behind Thurman.

Justin, after facing a dead end wall 10 feet in front of him called softly, "Clear." He subconsciously looked back to his right side, waiting as if looking for the word to appear from behind him. Instead his hearing was treated, as well as his rising heartbeat, to Thurman's "Clear".

Thurman began forward, with Trecose behind him, followed by Justin. The hallway was very dark, and no windows to the outside world were visible, but even that deep darkness could not defeat the technological marvel that was night vision. The tinted green world revealed a basic layout with doors to offices on each side. Four were on the left, with all their doors closed, and three were on the right, with the last office's door leaning crookedly in towards its room.

Justin suddenly tensed as the smell of rotting flesh passed by his nose. As if reading his mind he saw Thurman's hand raise in the air to signal what he already knew.

The three moved down the hallway glancing at each door quickly looking for signs of life and death, or a combination of the two. They had past two doors on the left and one on the right coming closer to the biggest caution sign in the immediate area, the broken leaning door.

Movement! Thurman quickly dropped to one knee and took aim. The other two followed suit with Justin checking the rear. As Justin turned back toward the front he saw what had caused Thurman to react. At the end of the hallway, he could see the dark green outline of a person's back just around the corner to the left. The person seemed to be slightly listing back and forth but not enough to see the full side of him, her or it.

Justin had begun to wonder what had caused Thurman's hesitation to taking the shot when the squad leader reached up and flicked something on the side of his goggles. Justin then understood that the SSG was viewing the person through the Infra Red image enhancement built into his Night vision. Thurman slightly shook his head and flicked the switch again and pointed towards the figure with four fingers confirming what they had smelled before. They had found the Rot.

Justin's heart began to quicken as he felt an adrenaline rush slowly start to pump into his body. The three then began to move forward, approaching and taking aim at the figure.

Then a shadow flashed across his vision from the right where they had come along side the second door on the right side of the hallway. "Moooaaaaa!" The shadow cried as it tackled Trecose and they both fell against the left wall. "Shit!" Justin exclaimed and brought up his rifle to strike at the shadow. Thurman turned around in time to see a Rot bite down on Trecose's forearm.

As Justin was bringing the butt of his rifle down on the Rot's head, his eyes narrowed at the sound of teeth grinding down on hard plastic and ripping free of the jaw. His rifle then struck the rot hard on the top on its head, and it stumbled back a half step. Before he could raise his rifle again, Trecose whipped around with his other hand, holding a large blade that he smacked into the temple of the Rot with an audible crack. The Rot's body feel limb and was held up by the knife sticking in it skull.

Still processing the situation in his mind Thurman noticed Justin's eyes going wide as he looked at him, no… behind him! Thurman ears then registered a close and very loud moan and felt a hand fall on his shoulder. Reacting, he reached up quick as lightning and grasped the wrist of the hand on his shoulder while ducking and launching the body behind over himself. He then pulled the arm straight and stepped on the neck of his attacker and was rewarded with a loud snap.

The Rot that they had seen earlier had been attracted to the struggle and had moved down the hallway behind him. "Fuck, how could I be so stupid," he cried. Looking over at Trecose removing his blade from the other Rot's head by lowering it to the ground and bracing his foot on its neck, he asked, "Did it penetrate?"

Justin watched as Trecose lifted up his arm and presented his Polycarbonate Gauntlet to Thurman. "Negative, I'm good." The harden plastic polymer that consisted of their full body armor might not have done so well with high caliber bullets, but to half rotted teeth it did well. Justin even noticed a single bloodied tooth, root and all, embedded in the gauntlet.

"You were lucky," Thurman simply stated turning back down the hallway searching for any other targets.

"Whatever," replied Trecose as he readied himself and checked the door that his attacker had stepped out of looking for any further danger.

Just knew most people would have thought Trecose was just pretending to be a hard ass, but ever since the war started, the once looked down upon National Guard soldiers had proven to be the hard asses they acted like. While most of the still operating military had started this war safe in a military base, most of the National Guard had been activated in the beginning to handle the so called "National Riots". Most of the surviving Guardsmen had fought their way through besieged cities to safe zones and had witnessed some of the most horrible things imaginable. The National Guard was no longer a fighting forced to be laughed at, the Rot ironically had seen to that.

"Alright people, stay frosty. No more mistakes. Let's move out," Thurman ordered.

Justin gave the two dead bodies at his feet at closer look. Both corpses looked quite old. Their skin almost had a mummified look, and they both seemed to have large spots on their shoulders and arms where only the bone was visible. The one that had surprised Trecose was a female, he thought, wearing what looked like casual wear and the other was a male wearing a torn business suit. Not unexpected to be in this place. "Sergeant, I don't think either of these are the survivors we are here for. They look too long dead," he reported.

Thurman threw back a simple "Lets hope not." _"Yeah, let's hope"_, went through Justin's mind.

The three moved forward and cleared the rest of the hallway, quickly inspecting the office with the damaged door. There were dark stains on the desk, walls, chair and door, but no Rot and no bodies. The room had its own story, but it would most likely be never know to the soldiers now moving on.

They turned left leaving the hallway moving into a larger open area filled with cubicles on their left. Justin and Trecose both spotted two disfigured heads moving above the cubicle walls moaning and approaching their position. After giving the proper signal they both aimed, seeing their IR lasers resting on the foreheads of each on the Rot shambling towards them, and fired a single suppressed round through each one. The two heads bucked backwards as large chunks of rotting flesh blew out the back in a green tinted black spray and they dropped out of sight.

Justin explained softly to the other two that these Rot also looked too old to have been who they were looking for, and they moved on. Going into that cubicle maze was just asking for trouble. It was better to bypass and deal with anything hiding in there later or not at all.

The squad moved out of the open space and came to another hallway also going left, when they heard a faint thumping up ahead. After carefully moving down, checking each door for signs of occupants they came to double L shaped wall. As they came out of on the other side and into a shorter hallway, they found the source of the noise. A single Rot, consisting of the upper torso and only bones for legs was lying in front of a set of heavy double glass doors slowly banging its fist against the doors fruitlessly. Trescose quickly moved ahead of Thurman, receiving a hushed "Hey" and a glare, and put a round through the top of its head. Thurman let whatever complaint he had drop and moved up to the glass doors with Justin in tow covering behind them.

Looking through the double glass doors, they could see an empty elevator lobby as well as an identical set of doors across from them. "Well," Justin began, "These Rot fucks only bang on doors when they know or think someone is living on the other side. And, judging by those desks propped up on the on the other side of those doors over there, I would say we are getting closer."

"Agreed," Thurman replied. "Let's get going, we running low on time." As if in response, they heard loud multiple shotgun blasts, echoing from the direction they had come from.

**A/N: Please review!**


	4. Stair Masters

Sgt. Thompson and Spc. Helem were already starting to get bored. It had been ten minutes since the other part of the squad had moved through the door to search the floor.

They both had heard the brief scuffle on the other side of it but had not moved to help as no such radio transmission came.

Thompson had pondered the idea of radioing in a status call to check on them but thought better of it as he knew one of the other soldiers would have transmitted them a warning if someone had been hurt or they had encountered a dangerous amount of the Rot.

He looked up the stairs at the next half landing, watching for any movement and listening for any sound. The smell of the body was still strong in the stairwell but it bothered him less as the minutes dragged by and his senses became more accustomed to it.

Helem was also watching down the stairs five feet away, providing the same watchful eye for any danger from below. He smiled inward to himself as he thought about his brief exchange with Justin when the squad had split. They had known each other for as long as he could remember. They had survived the horror of their home town together and both volunteered for this dangerous duty, shortly after reaching the safe zones west of the Mississippi River. He knew their reasons for doing so. They were trying to make up for all the people back in Philadelphia that they had failed to save.

Images flashed thorough his mind a mile a minute. The first Rot they saw. The first screams they heard, together with the first gunshots.

_They had both went for cover behind the pretzel stand after hearing the bullets whizzing nearby, the attendant dropping behind it as well, next to them. "What the hell?" He remembered the guy saying. _

_Before either he or Justin could respond a man in blue suddenly dropped on the guy, tackling him into the side of the stand. Just as Justin began to yell at the newcomer and moved over to pull him off, Helem saw this man in blue open his mouth and bite down hard on the back of the attendant's neck. The injured man screamed in pain, as the attacker lifted his head with his bloody prize in his teeth and began to chew, then began to violently thrash around trying to get his tormentor off his back._

_Justin then had grabbed the man in blue by the back of his shirt collar and threw him backwards. Justin and Helem watched as the assailant landed hard on his back, blood splattered all over the front of his shirt and……SILVER BADGE! _

"_Holy Shit! It's a cop!" Justin had yelled. _

_Helem has looked at the cop bewildered as the realization sunk in. "What the fuck is going on here?" He asked frantically. He focused in on the uniform and saw five blackened bullet holes on the cop's torso and a large piece of his right arm missing, blood covering the rest of it below the wound. _

"_He is all fucked up," Helem had started when his breath caught in his throat and the mangled cop began to rise and moan softly staring at him with grayish bloodshot eyes. "Justin, let's move…NOW!" _

_Justin had hesitated and had looked like he was getting ready to go on the offensive, when Helem then noticed a whine followed immediately with a loud report ending with a wet slap as the cop's head emptied out the back with a wet slap. He immediately dropped back down and didn't move. _

_They both looked behind them and saw another cop just beyond the pretzel stand aiming his pistol in their direction. The cop's eyes had then refocused on them and he yelled across the distance, "RUN! Get a fucking weapon and get your asses somewhere safe NOW!"_

_Things had gotten worse from then on. Philly was a tough city and had not fallen as easily as some. Had more people been aware of what was truly happening, the city might not have fallen at all._

Just as Helem began to reflect on the rest of that first fateful day, he was snapped out of it by a low hiss from Thompson. "Helem, get your head back into the game," the Sergeant spat.

Helem gave him an apologetic nod and moved off of the wall he was leaning on at the top of the stairs. He was then halted as the shotgun on his back's strap caught on the railway and he was pulled back against the wall, the shotgun gun giving off a small but echoing metallic clink as it collided with the wall. "Shit," he hissed though bared teeth.

Thompson's head shook, "Douche Bag," he commented and they both froze listening for any noise responding to their own little mishap.

After about ten seconds, some of the longest in his life, Helem let out a relieved breath that he had been holding. Thompson looked visibly more relaxed as well and turned back to his stairwell. Then they both heard it, a small sorrowful moan in the bowels of the stairwell. It was then followed by a few more.

"Shit," looks like we are about to get some company," Thompson whispered loud enough for only the two of them to hear. "Keep quiet, maybe if we don't make any more noise they will lose interest before they see us. "

After a few more seconds, the moans began to get louder. "Okay, no such luck. Get ready, and I'll call it in," Thompson stated. Just as he was about to radio Thurman, they both heard the door on the next floor down open and bang against the wall.

Both Helem and Thompson moved to the top stair and ready their weapons down the staircase. They both saw the brownish grey fingers wrap around the corner of the wall first then, the thing pulled itself around the corner and climbed onto the first step. Its sunken eyes then landed on Thompson and it stared at him releasing a small moan. It looked like it used to be a woman. She had been dressed in a dark dress that was now graying with grime from her rotting body. Helem could see dark circular wounds all over the bare legs, but could not detect any further pre death injuries in his quick scan of the Rot.

Thompson shivered as it continued to stare at him with its cold dead hungry eyes and aimed his pistol at its head. As the Rot reached the third step, Thompson fired and his pistol released a small Thhhhpppnnn, as the sound suppressor did its job. The round entered the female Rot's right eye, and pierced through taking with it the grey and blackened brain matter out the back of the head. The Rot dropped to the stairs and slid down to the bottom, still laying face first on the first step.

The moaning increased in frequency and volume. Helem leaned over and looked down the small separation in the staircases and into the dim recesses of the stairwell. When he saw the multiple hands grasping the railings moving upward he simply said, "Shit, she has some friends and they're coming to say hello."

No sooner had Helem spoken when Thompson yelled, "Eyes front!" Helem whipped back to look down the staircase and saw three more Rot come into view. He immediately opened fire taking down two males with three shots. Thompson fired once more and brought the other one down. As the last one dropped, two more shuffled around the corner followed by two more.

One of the ones in front used to be military and was outfitted with a Kevlar Helmut.

Helem fired on this one first. The first round actually deflected of the left side of the helmet and embedded in the neck of the female Rot next to it. The female's head shook and slightly spasmed but she did not fall until a round from Thompson a split second later entered her forehead causing her to fall back down the steps into the trailing two. Helem fired again and again, the first hitting the military Rot in its left cheek and the second hitting its upper teeth knocking them back into its throat. Unfazed, it slowly moved closer.

As the back two began to recover from being tripped by the female's body, they were joined by four more. The "friends" from the bottom floors had arrived at the party. Thompson shifted aim to the military Rot and put two suppressed rounds into the side of its head thorough its ear as it stumbled on the next step and leaned on the stair's wall.

Meanwhile the growing crowd of six had now become eight and was climbing the stairs towards the two soldiers. Eight sets of eyes flashed with horrible hunger and they opened their mouths letting out terrible unearthly moans of desperation. Both Thompson and Helem took aim and began to fire together picking their targets at the closer Rot, hoping to duplicate the results from the female that had delayed her fellow Rot behind her.

Five more dropped and added to the piling of bodies at the base of the stairs but they were replaced by four more coming around the corner with moans signaling even more reinforcements coming closer. Thompson tried to radio Thurman but could not stop firing or they would soon be overrun.

"Fuck this shit," yelled Helem and he holstered his pistol and quickly pulled the shotgun out from behind him. He aimed the Spas down at the climbing Rot and let loose three rounds in quick succession. Bam, Bam, Bam. The three buck shot rounds fanned out and slammed into the heads, necks and upper torsos of the front four. The leading two had most of their head exploded while the two directly behind them caught the third round of buckshot in their faces.

One of the two, a fat festering monster lost his whole face with some of the metal shot reaching his brain and causing him to die yet again.. The other one took some metal pellets through it eyes and nose and was blinded. The blinded rot tripped over the falling bodies of the two in front of it and went sprawling down the stairs with them. The fat one dropped straight down and rolled backward knocking the rest of the Rot off the stairs like a bowling ball. "Fuck yeah, STRIKE!" Helem yelled and raised his shotgun in the air.

Thompson allowed himself a grin and followed suit bringing his own shotgun to bear. "Let's bring the pain," he replied.

"Ttthhhhhh…Thompson, report," the radio barked.

"Sergeant, we got a lot of Rot incoming but we are holding them off for now. We had no choice but to break tactical silence or we would have been overrun, over," Thompson explained into the radio.

"Damn it. Understood, do what you can, we'll speed things up on this end. You should have notified me earlier."

"Does it matter now, Sergeant? You don't have much time. You guys need to finish up soon, or I will recommend we abort. I'll notify you the second the situation gets worse or better, over," Thompson stated.

"Roger that, see that you do, Thurman out."

Bam, Bam, "Jesus, where do you think all these Fucks came crawling out from?" Helem asked.

Bam, Bam, Bam, "Who knows, maybe this stairwell leads to the parking garage and these poor bastards thought they were safe hiding down there until they got slaughtered," Thompson theorized.

Bam, Bam, "Reload," Helem yelled above the noise.

"Roger, covering," Thompson replied as he fired down at the thinning Rot attempting to climb the steps over the bodies of their comrades.

Helem quickly reloaded and covered Thompson who now needed to do the same. By the time the Sergeant was ready, the flood of Rot has ceased.

"Whew, glad there weren't many more of these fuckers. I only got about ten rounds left," Helem huffed out, digging his finger into his ringing ears. "How many do you got left?" He asked.

"I got about 20 more," Thompson replied. "I think we'll be fine if they can wrap this up and find those survivors soon. We might be able to hold another crowd of that size but I don't want to take any chances. Beside's who knows if this place has any of those Shreekers. If any of those survivors has recently bought it, we might have a bit of a problem."

Helem shuddered at the mention of the Shreekers. Those bastards were fast and deadly. Sometimes when a person was turned quickly by a killing bite, they came back just as fast as they were when they were alive and well. That could last a few hours, and a Rot running full speed at you was not only more terrifying then the stumbling pieces of shit but a running head shot is a lot harder then a slow moving target. Not to mention the horrible scream they let out of their mouths. Helem shuddered again; he hoped they wouldn't have to deal with a Shreeker in these close narrow hallways.

"Okay, we seem to be clear, I'm gonna give Thurman a SitRep."


	5. Survivors

"Well, that's the last of it," Samantha Gallagher sadly announced. She placed the empty can of baked beans down on the table with a sigh. She heard the other two in the room give back similar sighs in response. The soft moonlight shone through the window at her back illuminating the conference table, were three people were sitting down gazing down at paper plates full of baked beans.

"Then I guess we better enjoy it," a man sitting across from her responded. Then with more enthusiasm he added, "Besides, they'll be coming soon to get us the hell out here." Built like a bear with large piercing brown eyes, Jose Boyer had been one of the lucky few to make it to work that fateful day unaware of what was starting to happen all over Denver. At first he had been all doom and gloom, but as the weeks stretched on and they had been forced to retreat up to the 20th floor, he had become easier to deal with and a person who turned out to be reliable and a quick thinker. He then became the rock on which many of the group of survivors had leaned on and found the will to live. The others had eventually seen him as their unofficial leader. Knowing this, he had taken their losses harder then anyone else.

The third and final person in the room was a gorgeous, blond haired, blue eyed young woman named Rachel Cummings. She nodded at the other two remarks but refrained from answering back. Once outgoing and definitely outspoken, her self confidence stemming from her Victoria Secret Model level looks, Rachel had become drastically more humble since their plight had begun. While she was still very beautiful, she now wore dirty clothes and had become very thin from the lack of a proper diet, something she found ironic as she had spent most of her life on a diet to keep the great body that she possessed. Even she felt that her current frailness was unhealthy.

Rachel looked down at her plate dreading another meal of cold almost tasteless beans. They had found the two cans by chance when Jose had looked behind the preparation table in the kitchen of the company's Café whose food they had lived off of these past two months.

Samantha saw the look on Rachel's face and couldn't help but give a slight smile. Samantha herself wasn't looking forward to the meal either but she knew they were damn lucky to have it. The pretty blond noticed her smile and gave a slightly smaller smile in return then began to dig into her food. Samantha then began her meal as well. The first bite was just as she expected, tasteless and cold.

Not naturally a complainer herself, Samantha couldn't stand people who bitched and complained all the time and refused to do anything to change what they were whining about. Rachel had been like that in the beginning, but like the rest of the survivors, current events dictated a change in her behavior.

Being a woman in her early thirties with dark black hair and bright green eyes, Samantha wasn't too bad looking herself. Actually, when she was dressed for business, she had been told by many want to be lovers that she was incredibly sexy and her personality only made it better. True, she had been a hard ass on the job, but she was still surprised to find out how many men in her company were obsessed with getting her into their bed. Even with knowledge of this, she still had found herself envious of Rachel's beauty when she had first come to the company.

Not that it mattered anymore; no one was around to appreciate either of their looks, except for Jose and the zombies. Jose didn't seem interested in such things having lost his wife this last year and she knew what the zombies wanted to do with her looks alright. "Well, it's been two days since we made contact and we still haven't seen or heard anything," Samantha finally answered. "How do we know they are still able to come for us?" She asked.

"Because if they don't we are finished. That's why," Jose replied with a grimace. "No food, 3 rounds for the handgun, the only other solutions besides rescue are to use those bullets on ourselves or starve to death. Take your pick."

"Well, we could try to search the other floors for food again," Rachel quietly suggested.

"Shit, I don't even want to take my ass back out there and get it bit off looking for a snack pack," Jose retorted. "We lost John and Lizzy the last time and if I hadn't put that ax into John's head when he turned, I wouldn't be here either and neither would our only gun." His face became sad as he said it. John had become a good friend during the past two months and if it hadn't been for him in the beginning, Jose wasn't sure any of them would have made it past that first couple of days. "Poor Lizzy, I…I just wished…I…I mean were so close to making it." He choked out.

Samantha could feel tears welling up on her eyes. _Jose, John and Lizzy had gone out two days ago after Samantha had finally raised someone on the police radio that John had. They were trying to make their way to the roof to see if it was clear and hopefully wait up there for rescue. They had been ambushed on the stairs. Jose had told her that John pushed him into a hallway through the access door on the floor they were on. He had last seen Lizzy running up the stairs toward the roof. After a few gunshots, he heard a cry of pain and then one final shot. All was quiet except for the soft moaning he could hear on the other side of the door. _

_Jose had waited two hours and then chanced a peek into the staircase. When he couldn't see or hear anything he moved out the doorway only to have John grab him and fall with him to the floor. John must've had shot himself somewhere else besides the head. Jose had explained that he got away up the next flight of stairs and when John followed killed him with his ax. He grabbed John's gun and the flashlight that he dropped and the one John had with him and ran back down the stairs. He had gotten back through the door but not before a couple of zombies from the bottom floors had gotten through behind him. _

Samantha wiped a tear from her cheek. They hadn't found out what happened to Lizzy yet. But if she hadn't come back by now then she was most likely dead or a zombie, just like the rest of the people they had started out with. All of them died and then got back up and turned on the rest of us.

"I'm sorry…" Rachel started.

"Don't worry about it, really," Jose interrupted. "Let's just make sure we stick together and don't try to do anything else that we can't handle."

Rachel nodded and Samantha began to ask what they could handle when she saw both Jose and Rachel's eyes widen and their heads turned abruptly to the door of the conference room. Then she heard it as well. A faint booming noise sounded muffled through the door. The three looked at each other then as if silently asking if the others had heard it as well. Then there was no mistaken it, a distant boom, boom, and then a boom, boom, boom, in quick succession.

Rachel spoke first, but the other two echoed her words, "That's gunfire!"

All three got up like lightning and grabbed their flashlights. Jose led them out the door and to the elevator lobby entrance. Jose turned to the double glass doors and peaked above the piled office furniture of their makeshift barricade and froze eyes wide. Samantha joined him and looked out into the moonlit elevator lobby. Her eyes nearly bulged out of her head but an encompassing smile crept onto her lips next. Standing on the other side of the glass doors on the far side of the elevator lobby were three heavily armed soldiers.

Two were guarding a third who had just finished talking on a walkie talkie attached to his chest. Samantha could not contain herself and started banging on the glass, immediately followed by Rachel who had joined them. Samantha and Rachel both started shouting "Hey, we're here. Help us, we're in here."

All three soldiers snapped up at the noise and aimed their weapons toward the barricade. As the women words hit their ears, the soldiers seemed to visibly relax and began to move forward, the one in front waving back.

Rachel fell to her knees crying and repeating, "It's all over, we're going be ok, we're going to be ok."

**A/N: Hey everyone, I am disturbed by the lack of reviews. I know this is a fairly fresh story and has few chapters so far, but I would like to know what kind of job I am doing. Please Review good or bad.**


	6. Escape

"Thhhhhh…Sergeant Thurman, this Sergeant Thompson, over," the radio came to life on Thurman's chest. Thurman started and gave a short sigh of relief. "Jesus, we got to get us some fucking coms that are less noisy."

"Be nice," Justin replied. "Then maybe the rest of the damn floor wouldn't know exactly where we are."

Trecose just grunted his agreement and took position, covering the elevator lobby.

After the initial blasts were heard and Thurman had his chance to chew out Thompson, and had some given right back to him, _to the secret amusement of the other two as they knew Thompson couldn't give a shit about Thurman's rank_, the squad leader had given the order for Trecose to go loud. This of course meant that he could switch back to his powerful UMP-45. Thurman had guessed that the extra fire power might be needed as soon as necessary and no one had any arguments with that.

They had removed the half a corpse away from the door, Justin noticing that the dumb bastard was pounding on the doors trying to push them outward when if fact if it had just pulled on one, even it's crippled ass would have been able to enter, when the transmission came in.

Justin turned and covered the barricaded door. He tensed as he thought he saw a shadow behind one of the overturn desks, but then noticed no further movement.

Behind him Thurman had answered Thompson's call and was listening to his situation report. "…immediate area is secured for now, but I wouldn't count on having no more guests coming to this party, over."

"Understood, we've come across some barricades. If we don't see shit after this, we are heading back and calling for pick up, stand by, Thurman out," he explained as he clipped the mike back into place.

"Contact!" Justin whispered hoarsely. He had almost jumped and lit the whole barricade door up when he saw a dirty face peak up above the stacked desks behind the glass doors.

The other two braced and target the new threat as another face joined the first and fist were brought up against the glass. Trecose had his finger tightening on the trigger when they all heard a feminine and a very human voice cry out, "Hey, we're here. Help us, we're in here."

"Survivors!" Justin exclaimed as he and the other soldiers relaxed a bit and moved toward the doors. Justin walked up and banged once on the glass and said, "Hey, U.S. Army Search and Rescue. Can you move that stuff out of the way and come out here?"

"Yeah, hold a minute," the first face he seen answered. This one was a large male.

"Okay, well be as fast as you can, we don't have much time," he explained. He watched as the man began to lift the side of the top desk. A female moved over to help him lift it off the bottom desk, apparently the owner of the voice that cried out.

"Trecose, you help Delion with the survivors. Check them for bites or sickness and help any weak ones. I'll take point this time," Thurman laid it out for him.

Justin watched as the man and women pulled the bottom desk out of the way and opened the doors. He was surprised as the women dressed in dirty business clothes, tears running down her eyes ran out and hugged him hard knocking him back a few steps while the male survivor reached back into the hall and pulled another female who was crying into view. He heard the man say, "Come on Rachel sweetheart we're getting out of here."

"Delion check them." Thurman ordered.

"Okay, it's going be okay," he said soothingly as he peeled the sobbing women from around his waist. "I need to know where the others are."

"Their gone," the man answered for her.

Justin pulled the woman off of him and removed his night vision goggles then gently looked at her eyes. She managed a smile. "Listen," he said and looked at each of them. Me and Private Trecose over there have to make sure none of you are injured."

"You mean are any of us bitten, right?" The man said with a little venom in his voice.

"Yes, are any of you bitten or scratched?" Justin asked. He understood the man was being protective, but he'd better give the right answer, and the truth.

The woman who had hugged him answered first, "No, none of us have been bitten or hurt in any way, I promise you."

"I don't see anything on either of these two," Trecose stated flatly after inspecting the other man and women.

"Like Samantha said, we are all fine," the man said again and again with the same laced venom in his voice.

Justin saw anger flash in Trecose's eyes. Before he could say anything however, the man's voice softened, "I'm sorry, we are just hungry and scared and just want to get the fuck out of here."

Thurman chimed in, "We understand sir, we're just taking precautions…"

"No, no, I understand, and my name is Jose by the way," Jose interjected. "This is Rachel," he nodded towards the girl holding on to him, "and that's Samantha."

"Private Trecose, Corporal Delion and I'm Staff Sergeant Thurman," Thurman introduced them in turn.

Samantha smiled as Justin looked at her when the Sergeant had said his name. "_Wow, he is really cute_," she thought to herself and then immediately chastised herself for thinking about such things when they were in this situation. She even regretted losing herself in the moment and basically jumping on him almost knocking him over.

Justin noticed the smile and immediately depressed any reaction he would have usually had in better times. "Listen, your might have to run are any of you too injured to do so?" He felt relief when they all shook their heads or simply said, "No".

"Okay then lets get the hell out of here," Thurman ordered. "Delion, up front with me. I want you three to stay behind us at all times. Trecose bring up the rear, let's move!"

The group of 5 moved quickly back into the hallway where the three soldiers had come from. Justin had put his night vision back on as the hallway was darker then the lobby and he was surprised that the three survivors were actually staying behind him without missing a step. "_Must be used to being in the dark_," he thought.

As they passed the cubical area on their left, Samantha noticed that the soldier had taking careful aim towards them ad they passed by. She figured they must have found some of the zombies in there and her hypothesis was correct as the usual rotting flesh smell became a bit stronger. As they moved to the end of the hall way and turned to go right, the smell became overpowering and Samantha could see dim shapes on the ground.

As they approached the door, Thurman put his hand and up and quietly said, "Hold up." He reached down and unhooked the mouth piece to his radio and spoke into it, "Thompson, we are coming through the door with three survivors."

"Roger that," replied the radio.

They then quickly opened the door and all moved through it. Samantha then saw two more soldiers guarding the up and down staircases. She hadn't felt so safe in as long as she could remember.

"How we looking Thompson?" Thurman asked.

"Nothing else so far," He replied.

"Okay then lets move." Thurman grabbed his radio again and began speaking into it as they began to move back up the stairs with Thompson and Helem following. "Raven 4, this is Shadow 6, over."

Justin's heart started to beat furiously as the seconds dragged by with no response. He wasn't alone.

"Thhhhtt… Shadow 6, this is Raven 4, good to hear your voice, over," the radio crackled. Everyone let out a large breath and smiles began to show on several faces.

"Likewise Raven 4, we need evac, all personnel plus 3 survivors over," Thurman reported.

"Shadow 6, Raven 4, glad to hear the good news. ETA, 2 minutes over."

"Roger that, Raven 4, we will be waiting, out," Thurman answered and then replaced the mike on its clip.

Justin saw the smiles and looks of relief and gratitude on the faces of the survivors and he knew he felt the same way. His happy feelings immediately drained from his very being as a blood curdling shriek sounded from the depths of the stairwell.

Everyone stopped dead and look at each other with looks on their faces of pure horror that almost would have been mistaken as comical if the danger below them wasn't so real.

"It's a fucking Shrieker, MOVE!" Thurman yelled.

All seven people snapped into motion as they ran up the steps. Their hearts thundering in their ears, the only other sound audible was the metallic pounding and screaming coming from below them seemly getting closer.

Justin saw the 29th floor sign as he passed. They were so close, but he could hear the screams even closer now. The Shrieker was right behind them.

They burst out of the roof access door and fanned out onto the roof, the soldier turning and pointing their weapons back at the door. Helem came thorough last turning around and firing a round back into the doorway, screaming "Fuck you, you loud bitch" He pulled his shotgun away as Thompson slammed the door and braced his weight against it, Helem joining him a second later.

A second after that something smashed into the door knocking both soldiers back an inch and then they pushed the door back. The monster on the other end continued to pound on the door rattling the two men holding it as well as the hinges.

Thompson looked down to his right and saw some old 2X4s lying alongside the wall. He reached down and picked one up and then braced one end under the doorknob and the other on a small concrete protrusion on the surface of the roof.

"Okay Helem back up. We'll just nail it as it breaks out," he called loudly.

"Where the fuck is that chopper?" Thurman yelled.

In response they all heard a low thumping echoing throughout the night. Yet, no one could see anything.

Samantha scared out of her mind had stood behind Corporal Delion as he waited for the fast zombie to break down the door. She saw the door shaking as the thing pounded on it from the other side, the 2X4 barely holding and bending slightly after each strike.

In a fit of rage, Trecose ran up to the door in the rest of the soldiers field of fire and snarled aiming his weapon at the upper part of the door and letting loose 15 rounds of .45 ACP. The top of the door quickly resembling swiss cheese.

After the echo of the gunfire faded, Justin and Samantha both realized that the pounding on the door had ceased. Both visibly relaxed although Justin still held his assault rifle ready.

As the thumping of the Blackhawk got louder, even though no one could see it yet, Helem let out a war cry followed by, "Yeah, bitch, that's how it's down. Shut your ass up." He shook his fist at the door. The other soldiers making similar remarks, the survivors quiet, just happy to be alive.

Trecose smiled slightly and backed away from the bullet riddled door. As he stopped a fierce wind picked up and washed over all of them. The Blackhawk rose above the roof like a great black angel ready to take them away from this evil place.

The Blackhawk hovered just on the lip of the roof and the Crew Chief climbed out to help the party get on board. Thurman and Thompson ran over to the door of the helicopter and help the chief load first Rachel, then Samantha into seats. Jose came over next smiling wide and shook the hand of the crew chief and the two Sergeants, then climbed into a seat himself next to Samantha giving her a hug. The three survivors were very happy to be leaving and it showed.

"Lets go!" Thurman yelled over the noisy machine and Delion, Trecose and Helem came over next from their guard positions and loaded into the machine. The two Sergeants then followed them into seats, leaving the crew chief, who had begun to climb in himself.

Even above the Blackhawk's engine noise Justin heard a loud crack and whipped his head around to watch as the 2X4 give way and the door fell forward out of its frame. Out of the darkness of the doorway ran a dark figure that appeared to be a normal woman, except for several large black holes on her chest.

The woman looked around almost disoriented and her eyes focused on Justin inside the helicopter. As, Justin began to shout a warning, the woman turned her open mouth to the moonlit night sky and bellowed long and terrible.

The noise caught everyone's attention and all turned to face the new threat.

Justin heard Thurman yell to the crew chief, "Hurry up, get your ass on board!" The crew chief scrambled all the way into the cabin of the Blackhawk, yelling into his helmut radio for the pilot to take off.

The shrieking woman stopped and took off towards them running as fast as any human could. As she covered half the distance her face became clearer in the moonlight. "Oh my god," screamed Samantha, its Lizzy!"

Jose's eyes widened, but before he could respond he saw something else.

Out from behind what was once Lizzy, came a flood of Rot, pouring out of the doorway and shambling along towards the Blackhawk. Lizzy had already closed the distance to within 10 feet of the cabin door when several things happened at once.

Most of the passengers began to react to the incoming threat readying their weapons or willing the helicopter to take off.

The crew chief after making it aboard turned to fire his side arm and the pilots began to rotate the rotor blades and increase the power to the engine which began to whine louder with the added thrust.

Then one other noise cut across all others and drew the attention of all the helicopter's passengers, a strange and sudden WWWHHHZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ.

What the passengers had failed to notice or just forgotten in panic was that another crew member was aboard the Blackhawk with them. This crew member was sitting behind a minigun.

Every one watched as hundreds and hundreds of rounds pored out of the weapon like a thin orange laser beam cutting everything it touched into pieces.

The shrieker caught the first of it up close and was literally ripped off its feet into the air and exploding into large chunks of meat as the orange laser followed it upward. The Blackhawk began to move up and away, its passengers watching as the trail of orange tracers adjusted to the Rot covering the top of the roof. They were treated to a terrible show of power as the Rot were decimated by the minigun's power.

Then the view from the cabin door shifted upward and away from the roof, the minigun falling silent.

"Now that is how you fucking you do it!" Helem yelled at no one in particular.

Justin found himself grinning.

**A/N: well I have been activated for the president's inauguration. So before you throw that rock or beer, remember that it might be your favorite author that gets hit. :P**


	7. Returning to Base

The Blackhawk moved higher and turned west, increasing its speed, ferrying its very relieved passengers to safety. Its crew chief handed a headset to Thurman and one to Thompson. He moved over to the crew chief's area and returned with two more headsets for Samantha and Jose.

The crew chief spoke first, "Okay, you're all hooked up, can you hear me?"

They all answered yes, Thurman added, "Chief, any change in route?"

"Negative sergeant, ETA 2.5 hours till we reach Grand Junction. Just sit back and relax."

"Wait," Jose interrupted. "We have questions, why are we going there? How bad of a state is the country in?

"Yeah," Samantha added. "What about our families? What's the government doing about all this? What's going to happen to us?"

Thurman took over at this point, "Look, we know all you guys have a million questions, but you are gonna have to wait, until we reach Grand Junction to get the whole story. You will then be briefed on current events."

"But wait, why can't…" Samantha started.

"Listen to me," Thurman demanded, cutting her off. "I'll give you both a quick preview and you can tell Miss Rachel there when you get a chance, but then your gonna have to wait for the rest, understood?"

After both of the survivors nodded he continued. "I won't sugar coat this, but shit is bad, real bad." Thurman didn't wait for any effect those words might have and he went right to it.

"The government is still working but barely. Most of what's left of it is in Pierre, South Dakota. Other parts are locked up tight in NORAD and other fortified locations. We have lost most of the country to the Rot."

"What the hell is the Rot?" Jose interjected.

"Rot, undead, zombies, whatever your flavor, but we call em the Rot."

"Oh my god, how much is gone." Samantha asked, tears forming once again in her eyes.

Thurman nodded at Thompson who began to explain, "We've lost about 80% of the country." He continued over the gasps of both survivors listening to his story on their headsets. "Most of the East Coast has been declared what we call Dead Zones. They are swarming with Rot…or zombies. The government believes them to be totally lost with no hope of ever being inhabitable unless whatever this thing is, ends. The entire west coast and about 98% of the east coast are now deemed Dead Zones as well as the south of the country."

My god, what the fuck happened, what is causing this?" Jose asked.

"No one knows yet but Denver, Boulder and the rest of the middle of Colorado have just been deemed a Dead Zone as well. We were pulling all scouting teams out when you got into contact with one of them. You guys were pretty lucky. You might have been left there for good," Thompson told them.

"Lucky?" Jose looked pissed. "You fucking call what we have been though lucky? We watched dozens die, and some of them get back up to try and kill us."

"Then we get to watch someone we have come to love like family get obliterated by a fucking minigun right in front of us," Samantha threw in.

"Look, damn it, everyone's got a story now. See Trecose over there," Thurman pointed at the young soldier, "Fought his way out of a war zone in Philadelphia losing every single family member right before his eyes and still managed to get to a FEC and now is going right back into it every chance he gets to help people he doesn't even know." Jose and Samantha both turned towards Trecose who simply ignored them, being unaware of the conversation and began to reload his half empty UMP-45 magazine.

"I understand your all upset and have been though a lot but right now you need to cool it and try to relax as much as possible for the rest of the flight. You get more information when you are briefed at the FEC in Grand Junction, plus some food and showers. You can decide whether to tell the beauty queen there or wait for her to hear it at the briefing," Thompson offered.

"Guess your right," Jose said. "We could all use some more rest." With that, he and Samantha exchanged looks and Samantha then smiled.

"Looks like we made it," she told him.

"Looks like it," Jose replied. Jose couldn't help but wonder at how it was becoming easier to lose people they had come to know and trust. They has just found out that Lizzy had died and watched her literally explode in the air, not to mention they seemed to already have forgotten John who he had put an ax into the day before, and now they were here safe and smiling. They had become angry yes, at the way the soldiers had casually dismissed Lizzy's horrible death and even the one who laughed about it, but he found himself just happy to be safe finally. _"I guess this is the way things work in this world now. The human instinct has replaced emotions like compassion and pity. Well not fully, but people have to be different now. If you are not one of us you are one of them, and being one of them gets you no more pity, compassion or love. Being one of them only gets you fear and death, not that you would care about either anyway, because you're dead." _These thoughts began to hurt his head so he shook his head and laid it back and closed his eyes enjoying the chilled air fighting with the heater above him and drifted off.

Samantha had turned to look at Rachel who had her attention on the young Corporal who she had hugged earlier. He was leaning out of the side of the helicopter looking up at something. Not being able to talk to them over the noise of the machine she began to tap Rachel on the shoulder when the soldier next to the Corporal caught her attention. Specialist Helem was staring at her and when she looked back at him he began to make kissy faces. She rewarded him with a middle finger and a smirk. Helem shrugged his shoulders as if to say, "Your loss," smirked back and then laid his head back and closed his eyes.

"_Now that's a good idea_," she thought as she followed suit and drifted off almost immediate despite the dull roar of the engines.

Most of the others did so as well except for Thurman who began to speak with the pilot on a different channel.

As the helicopter continued west out of the city, Justin had leaned out of the side of the aircraft and looked up at the spinning main rotor. He had always liked the way the static electricity played across the blades visibly at night. Pulling his head back inside, he noticed the young women who they had just rescued looking at him with a curious expression. Although she was gaunt and dirty, the moonlight was reflecting off of her pale skin and had given her a luminous glow. He then realized that this girl, Rachel, now he remembered, was absolutely beautiful. He actually had a hard time pulling his eyes off of her. He felt his heart drop as he sat there frozen with her eyes meeting his. Finally he shook himself out of it, realizing that he probably looked pretty fucking stupid staring at this woman with his mouth hanging open. Rachel lips slightly turn up in a small knowing smile.

He then found the strength and smiled back at her and raised his arm in a slight wave. Rachel nodded and then cocked her head in a questioning manner.

"_Oh, she wants to know why I was leaning out the side looking up, duh_," he thought. Justin then leaned back out a little and pointed upward. Seeing her eyes shift in puzzlement he pointed to his eyes, then upward and finally to her.

Rachel nodded again this time with understanding and began to lean across the empty seat across from him and look up.

Justin watched as her face brightened with wonder and smiled again. He watched her lips split in a widening grin as she traded looks between him and the rotor blade giving them both a light show.

About 20 minutes later Justin caught a glimpse of other helicopters moving off to what he thought was the north. He though he saw an Apache accompanying two other Blackhawks. "_I guess that rumor of a survivor stronghold in the Rocky Mountain National Park was true_," he rationalized.

He looked back at Rachel who had quit watching the static and had rested her head back and had her eyes closed. "_Damn_," he thought, "_That girl is fucking gorgeous_."

He watched her sleeping think of how much she looked like an angel although a dirty one, glowing like that in the light of the moon, willing her to wake up so he could look into her eyes some more.

After another 20 minutes or so, he looked around the rest of the cabin and saw that everyone else had their eyes closed and figured it might be a good deal to catch a nap too. Even Trecose was sleeping a little, twitching every once and a while. "That _guys lives a nightmare then sleeps through one too_," he thought. "_Can't imagine what goes through that guys mind_."

Justin laid his head back against the cabin wall staring up at the ceiling and was about to close his eyes when he saw a faint orange flash light up the end of the cabin and disappear again in an instant. That drew his attention and he leaned back out of the cabin again and took a look below.

The first rays of damn had finally appeared on the horizon and allowed him to see what he thought was an armored convoy heading east. He even caught a glimpse of what looked liked an Abrams moving down the highway. "Must be the expansion operation," he said out loud to himself, his voice drowned out by the Blackhawk.

He watched the flashes of gunfire still lighting up what darkness was left of the night and even saw a few bigger flashes from the convoy's vehicles. The resulting flashes were even bigger and seemed be directed out towards the town and eastern Route 6/ Interstate 70. He thought he could make out the mass of dots that were the Rot horde trying to get to the soldiers firing at them. He noticed the dots were falling very rapidly and by the time he passed out of view of the battle he could see the Rot horde couldn't even be considered as such anymore. Whoever was involved in that operation was definitely bringing the pain and using a hell of a lot of ammo.

Looking at his watch, he stowed his weapon and laid his head back down, determined to catch the last half an hour trip napping. Something told him that today was going to be a busy ass day. For some reason some douche bag had mandated that any soldiers who had rescued survivors had to stick with them at least 24 hours, to make sure they got their briefing and understood the new laws of life. Without this knowledge, any city could become a new Dead Zone. He had seen it happen in Dodge City, Kansas, because no one told those idiot survivors that it wasn't a good idea to go slit their wrists in private. Shaking off that nightmare, he closed his eyes and welcomed the coming bliss of oblivion.


	8. Welcome to Grand Junction

Justin awoke to someone tapping him on the shoulder. He forced his eyes open and looked right to see Helem's grinning face. Helem leaned over and spoke loudly into his ear, "Wake up you bitch. We'll be there in about a minute."

Justin nodded and waved him off. He searched for Rachel seeing her being woken up as well. Her sleepy gaze turned to him. She smiled and began to converse with Samantha, only being able to hear each other by practically yelling into each others ears as Helem had done to him.

The sun had risen now but was still on the eastern horizon. This allowed the passengers of the Blackhawk to see their surroundings now and all had taken the opportunity to look around.

The helicopter approached Grand Junction, Colorado and landed at a helipad at the Grand Junction Regional Airport.

As the survivors were helped off the aircraft, they were met by several men. All wore what looked like white hazard suits and some were armed.

One of the men in white, who sported a red stripe around his shoulder waved at them to follow him. As they complied, the armed men surrounded them and moved alongside.

They approached a large tent set up near an armed checkpoint made of sandbags with what looked like Marines manning a very large machine gun.

As they neared the entrance, the man with the red stripe who was obviously the one in charge stopped just outside the tent and turned to address them.

"I am Captain McLaughlin. Welcome to Grand Junction. Please do not be alarmed but this is all standard procedure," the man began.

Jose started to ask what standard procedure was, but the captain held up a hand and simply said, "Please I will explain everything, just be patient."

"You all have been in dire circumstances, but rest assured you are a lot safer now that you are here. Before we let you go any further we must protect ourselves from you." He nodded towards the rescue squad, "Gentlemen, you know the drill. Please surrender your weapons."

He then turned to look at each of the survivors, "New comers, also surrender any type of weapon you are carrying. Please do not resist, as no weapons are allowed in the orientation area, and you are not allowed to possess any until we determine if you are still mentally fit to hold them."

The rescue squad began to disarm themselves and place them into a bin that another man wearing what looked like lab tech scrubs brought over.

Jose looked like he was about to protest, but a look and a sharp nod from Thurman told him he should do as told.

As their weapons were collected the captain began again, "Thank you for your cooperation. Now I need the women to go with Dr. Carter here on my right into the tent for a quick physical evaluation."

Dr. Carter stepped forward and surprised them with a feminine voice, "its okay ladies, come with me, we'll get you checked out and cleaned up."

Rachel looked at Samantha who gave her a reassuring smile and walked forward holding her hand. As they entered the tent, she gave a look back to Justin and then went in.

"Gentlemen, follow me please," McLaughlin stated more as a demand then a request.

They moved into the tent and through another internal door marked MALES, into a large chamber like area that seemed to be too big to have been inside the tent. Against the far wall there were shower stalls and chairs as well as more bins. In the middle of the room were three examination tables complete with al types of machines and tools.

"Okay gentlemen, I need you to undress and place your clothing in the bottom of the bins located next to each stall. When you are finished in the shower, I need you redress in the medical scrubs provided for you on the top tray of the bin."

They all complied and moved into the showers. Jose had looked about skeptically and noticed that two of the armed men had entered with them and were standing in the corners. He didn't like this but so far the captain had been polite, firm but polite.

After they had showered and dressed, they were told to sit in the chairs on the left side of the room. Justin, noticing Jose's anxiety, whispered over to him, "Hey Jose."

Jose leaned towards him, "What is this nonsense?"

Hearing Jose's comment, Trecose muttered, "How the fuck did you survive this? They are only making sure you are not infected or injured."

Jose's eyes flashed with anger and he began a retort, when Justin spoke first, "Yeah, he's right. They just want to make sure your ok physically. You can't tell me you didn't enjoy that shower. I mean how long has it been?"

Humor showed in Jose's eyes. "Yeah, you were pretty fucking ripe when we found you," Helem chimed in.

With that Jose laughed and quickly muttered an apology. His face changed for a second though when his passed over Trecose. Trecose ignored him, shaking his head.

"Ok, let's get started. I need the survivor, SSG Thurman and SPC Helem first," the captain ordered.



Hot steaming water ran over Samantha's body as she was thoroughly enjoying the shower they were told to take. She could feel her muscles immediately relaxing from the pounding they were taken from the shower head. She looked down at her feet and saw how brown the water was coming down off of her, and grimaced, disgusted by how much dirt must have been on her. She must have stunk terribly too.

She stepped out when she was finished, dried herself off and began to put on the medical scrubs she found on top of the bin. As she was finishing dressing, Rachel got out of another one of the showers and let out a huge sign of relief.

"Wow, I needed that," she said heavily.

Samantha couldn't help looking at her body with envy. After eating almost nothing since their food began running out, her body was still immaculate. The only signs of being have starved was that her ribcage was a bit visible, She hadn't even lost any of her breast size or so she thought.

She yanked her eyes away before someone in the room would misunderstand why she was looking so hard and went to sit on one of the tables in the middle of the room.

Rachel joined her and sat on another table and after an hour of pokes and prods and dozens of questions, they were led out into the entrance way.

After they stood around waiting for another 15 minutes, they were joined by the rest of their party who had just come out of the other door.

They had all been checked out and other then a small bruise on Trecose where a Rot had bit down on his arm gauntlet, which at first freaked out the captain, everyone was fine. Jose was suffering from slight malnutrition but nothing else.

Captain McLaughlin came out and addressed the group, "Ok, everyone seems to be in good shape except the newcomers who need to get some food in them." Dr. Carter walked over and handed him a clip board. "SSG Thurman will lead you onto a bus waiting outside. You soldiers know what comes next so please assist your escorts in getting them," he nodded towards Jose, Rachel and Samantha, "settled in."

With that the group left the tent and found the bus waiting outside as promised, along with their escort, a man and a women who were armed with what looked like Micro Uzis and side arms.

They all entered the bus enjoying the warm air from its heater and sat down. As the bus lurched forward, the passengers remained silent at first looking out the windows, the survivors seeing people driving or walking around doing errands and were surprised at how much things seemed to be normal here.

Jose spoke up first, "So what's the next move then boss?" He had directed this to the male escort.

"We are going to get you set up at the orientation barracks. Get you some clothes and some food. Then you can get some rest. At around five o'clock this evening you will be required to attend an orientation briefing. There you will find out everything we can tell you and ask what questions you want to. Until then you will be restricted to your temporary accommodations. You will also be given a roommate which you must be with at all times. The reasons will be explained to you during the briefing, anything else?"

"No, Jose answered, that should do it…oh wait when do we get our weapons back?"

The escort simply said, "You won't." He then turned back to the front of the bus.

"Thanks, you fucking robot," Jose muttered.

Justin, Helem and even Thurman started chuckling.



The bus arrived at a fancy looking administrative building on the Book Cliff Country Club. They had passed through several well armed checkpoints and even one that sported a tank guarding the road.

Several patrols could be seen moving around the grounds and the door to the building had two Marines armed with shotguns.

They were let to a check in desk where another uptight individual took there name and issued them keys to rooms. Samantha and Rachel were paired up as expected while Thurman chose to bunk with Jose. Helem and Justin took a key, and the last two Thompson and Trecose went off to their room.

Their escorts informed those that were still present, that the cafeteria was open for another hour but then they had to return to their rooms until the briefing.

"Me and Rach are going to go eat," Samantha told them. "Care to join us anyone?"

Justin looked at Rachel, and Helem looked at Samantha and he and Justin both said at the same time, "I'll come." Both of the women laughed. They then followed the two escorts to the cafeteria, Thurman and Jose following.

**A/N: I am sorry for the delay in this chapter. I also apologize that I could not fit in what I wanted. So the next chapter which will come faster and will give you more of an idea on what has happened to the U.S. and the rest of the world. Anonymous reviews are now enabled so go ahead and leave one please.**


	9. State of the Union

_People were running all around him. Some were dragging others to the ground. The sound of gunfire joined the screams of pain and fright rising to a maddening crescendo. _

"_Come on son, we need to get to the FEC," his father shouted to him. He was about to respond but a close ear piercing scream sounded behind him. His father's shouts followed along with the roaring of his assault rifle. _

_He spun around and saw his mother lying on the ground with a man ripping her throat out. The blood sprayed and hit him in the face. He flinched, and stood still unable to move. His father kept firing into the crowd that seemed to come out of nowhere and run straight at them. Four of the strange crazy people fell down, but two more kept coming. _

_He locked eyes with one as they approached and swore he saw pure evil. Inside something snapped. His vision filled with red and he brought his shotgun up fired two rounds. The people seemed to come unglued from the waste up in a splatter of grey liquids. _

_He turned towards his mother and kicked the man off of her. The man fell to the side and jumped up growling like and animal. He pointed and blew the man's head completely off his body. _

"_Oh my god, Susan!" his father was screaming. A woman, who was grossly overweight, tackled him to the ground. _

_He saw his brother jump onto the back of the women and put his pistol to the side of her head and fire. _

"_Fiore, help me!" His brother yelled at him. He took one last look at his mother who was lying very still and ran to help move the heavy women off of his father. _

_He father got up and grabbed his weapon and started pulling his brother down the street. "Let's go boys, we got to get out of here," he was crying._

"_We can't leave mom," his brother._

"_We have to son, she's dead, let's fucking get going!" His father turned towards him and added, "Fiore, Now!"_

_He didn't want to go. He wanted to kill more of these crazy fucks. His wants were answered in the form of three more people that were badly mauled, hauling ass towards him and his family._

_He ran to them firing his shotgun into two and then swinging it around and hitting the third in the face. One of the two he shot had picked himself up and batted his shotgun away as he raised it again to strike. The man pushed him to the ground dropping on him. He grabbed the man around the throat and…_

He started squeezing as hard as his could. The man was turning blue and growling at him. He squeezed harder and the man's growling became slow. Then he heard the man say, "Tre…cose……ss..top."

This one knew his name? He did look familiar. His hands relaxed a bit. "Trecose, fucking.." He eyes focused. Thompson?!? He let Thompson go.

Thompson dropped to the floor and started gasping and coughing. "You crazy fuck," he sputtered.

"I'm, I'm sorry Sergeant," He said softly.

The color returned to Thompson's face. "You were fucking growling in your sleep, damn it. I was trying to wake your ass up."

"I was having a nightmare. It seemed real," Trecose replied.

"No, shit. Must have been a bad one, you almost strangled me to death."

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to." He said truthfully.

"I know, and that's why I am not beating the shit out of you right now,' Thompson then added, "Get dressed, the debriefing is in an hour."

"Understood."

*********************************************************************

The meal had been satisfactory, but the real reason he felt so happy now was that he seemed to be getting in real good with Rachel.

The group, save for Thompson and Trecose, had sat together in the cafeteria trading stories and backgrounds and getting a decent meal.

The survivors expectedly had gorged themselves on as much as they could, as they hadn't eating anything filling in weeks.

He had a chance to get to know Rachel a lot better and she seemed to be interested in him just as much as he was in her. Others had told Justin when he was assigned to Search and Rescue that he shouldn't bother trying to get involved with survivors as they more then likely were just thankful to be safe and their feelings could be easily misunderstood.

Justin didn't think this was the case with Rachel, but he would sure find out soon enough. He was really just happy at the chance of something good and normal happening to him for once. He was in a world of death and he hadn't given any thought to romance or something of that nature since things had gone to hell. Rachel looking as good as she did only make it that much better.

He and Helem had gone back to their room after about two hours worth of talking and eating with the group to get some sleep. They woke up, got dressed and bullshitted with each other over the women topic a while before they had their mission debriefing.

*************************************************************

It was about 4:00pm when Samantha heard someone banging on the door.

"Is it that time already?" Samantha groaned.

"I think so," Rachel replied from the other side of the room.

Her question was answered by the voice of one of their escorts calling through the door that they had one hour till the orientation briefing.

The two women dragged themselves off the beds stiffly. It was as if all the months of physical assertion, malnutrition and fear had finally caught up to them all in one swoop.

"Oh my god," Rachel whined stretching.

"Tell me about it," Samantha added. "I can't complain though, I don't think I have slept that soundly or as long in a long time."

It was true from the moment her head hit the pillow she was unconscious and hadn't dreamed or awakened once the whole day. Safety did wonders for the mind.

After the two women dressed in the clothes provided for them, simple pairs of jeans, a t-shirt and sweater shirt along with basic underwear, socks and a pair of sneakers, they walked outside their room and met up with Jose and Thurman.

"Well, good luck, learn what you can and stay strong," Thurman told them.

"What, your not coming?" Samantha asked.

"No, the soldiers don't have to go through it. We already know what they have to say; also we have our own de-briefing we need to go through. We are just here now so they can keep an eye on us, make sure we haven't cracked or anything. It's standard procedure now. We'll be back on mission tomorrow," Thurman explained.

"Ouch, and we were just getting to know you guys," Jose said.

"Hey, we are allowed to stay in touch. Actually it's encouraged. Don't worry you'll understand a lot better after the briefing," Thurman replied.

Thurman shook all three of their hands and said goodbye, and walked back to his room.

After one of their escorts came along, they all followed him to a large room that looked like it used to be a fancy dinning room. The room was now set up with a large projection screen and a podium bearing the symbol of the United States Army. The escort pointed towards tables spread about and walked off with out another word.

The three of them sat down and looked around and saw that a small amount of people were also coming in and sitting down.

Samantha realized that these others must be survivors like themselves.

She watched as a very skinny woman and two sickly looking young teenagers went to a table in the corner of the room and sat down. She also saw two hard looking men come in and sit down at another table. After a few others came in and sat down a man dressed in an Army dress uniform walked out from a side door and stood at the podium.

"Good Evening, I am Major Scott. I want to formally welcome you to Grand Junction. I will be giving you a lot of different kinds of information tonight, some you might find disturbing, and some that might give you hope. Some of it you might know, most of it you will probably not, hence this briefing. Please hold all questions till the end."

The major held up a small remote and pointed it at the back of the room. A hazy picture began to form on the projection screen.

After a few second a map of the United States began to form.

"Okay, let's start at the beginning. Around September 15th 2008, we first started to notice things were wrong in Pennsylvania." He clicked his remote again and a map of PA appeared on the screen.

"The FBI started receiving reports from the PA state police of multiple instances of strange murders in the rural areas around Harrisburg and also around the suburbs of Altoona seen here." Scott pointed to the corresponding locations on the map.

"The FBI ruled out the conclusion of a single assailant or serial killer as the media began to hype up. When similar incidents start occurring in Pittsburg and Philadelphia, the notion of a terrorist attack or a cult began to gain popularity. Then there was evidence of similar crimes all across the rural areas of the eastern seaboard and parts of the west coast." A new picture appeared showing red dots on the eastern seaboard and then a second shot of red dots in California and Oregon.

"Around them time the governor of Pennsylvania declared a state of emergency after he had lost communication with several State Police barracks who had reported that they were under attack. These same riots as they first were thought to be started happening all over the state and Harrisburg was one of the first cities to fall into chaos. The National Guard mobilized and went into Harrisburg to secure the city and began to report back strange occurrences of people suffering gunshot wounds and still able to walk around and in some cases run and attack people. These reports were deemed over exaggerated due to panic and mainly ignored. The last reports received from the battalion that went into the city were that the dead were coming back to life and killing the living."

"When the Pentagon received this report, the riots were now wide spread and they were even receiving reports from overseas installations and allies that they were experiencing rioting and attacks in their major cities."

The screen switched back to the U.S. map. This time there were red dots covering most of the country.

"Within a week of the last broadcast from the national guard in PA, most of the country was in chaos. It wasn't until the Rot, or as you might know them zombies were banging at the gates of the Pentagon and several major military bases were over run that the government acknowledged that the dead were indeed returning to life and the problem was world wide. The president declared martial law and the Active Army began to move into the major cities to evacuate them and set up Federal Evacuation Points or FECs. Unfortunately many of the Helicopters were based on installations that had already been lost before hand and some of the FECs became choke points with no way of getting out. These were horrible failures that increased the size of the problem."

"After a month, the Army had completely lost all control of the east and west coast regions. The President ordered two divisions into the DC area to try and retake the city. They were forced to retreat with 85% causalities. It was then that those areas were considered "dead zones" and abandoned to the dead. Over the next six months the dead zones have spread outward basically encompassing the United States, Texas, Florida and everything in between is a dead zone except for a small area that the Marines have been trying to clear for movement to the gulf to link up with a carrier battle group. North Dakota is a hot zone but has not been lost yet. Idaho and Nevada have been completely abandoned and are considered hotzones along with Montana. East of Nebraska to the Alantic Ocean is gone except for east North Carolina which is being held by the military for survivor collection points. The same goes for Northern Michigan and Erie, PA. What is left of our military has been able to secure some of the mid west and hold it stable, or as stable as possible save for Denver and it's surrounding areas, with this kind of problem. This is the new United States ladies and gentlemen. This is your new home."

"The remnants of the government are held up in Pierre, South Dakota and we have been able to organize what is left of America to try and survive."

Scotts tone actually became more serious, "Survive. That is the key word now folks. The world is never going back to the way it used to be. This is something you must understand and except. That is Americas only goal now, therefore pay close attention to this next issue."

"This is what we are up against," Scott explained as the screen showed three pictures side by side of three of the undead. The first was a very bloodied and half decayed man; the second portrayed what seemed to be a normal woman running towards the camera except for the big tear in her neck and the growling face. The third was strange as it showed another obviously undead man crawling on all fours like a dog. "The first is the average Rot or zombie. They are slow and weak, but can be dangerous in large numbers. The second is what we call a Shrieker. For an unknown reason these zombies are as fast as they were when they were alive and well. They are vicious and tireless. These are rare but when they show up, they can cause complete havoc. Very dangerous, they must be killed on site. What we do know about this kind is that when they are able to bite or kill someone, that person will most likely rise as a shrieker as well. This type is the most responsible for the loss of many of our military assets."

"Finally, the third type that we have just only encountered recently has been designated as Reachers. Now, I don't know if any of you have ever seen this type, but it is almost unbelievable what they can do. They seemed to crawl on all fours and are fast and agile. We have even seen them "running" on walls." Scott continued quickly as some people had the look of disbelief on their faces, "I know that sounds impossible but this ability has been confirmed. They also seem to be able to stretch their arms almost an extra two feet then should be possible. These are even more rare but are the most dangerous that we have seen. Avoid them at all costs. They seem to be found mostly inside structures. All these types of undead, rot, zombies, etc., can only be killed when you destroy their brain. I understand that being survivors that you already know, but it still must be said."

Scott paused to drink from a water bottle he had stored in the podium. He paused a moment further to allow some of that information sink in. "Alright as far as the rest of the world goes."

The screen displayed a world map. "In the months after the President declared Martial Law, the rest of the world had been in chaos. After fierce battles were reported, China launched a nuclear missile and completely destroyed Hong Kong fearing that it was a virus of some kind and that the inhabitants would escape the island and spread it. After the island was completely wiped out, they also fired several missiles into N. Korea who apparently had a mass amount of civilians attacking the border check points and surrounding communities. Most of the information we have about the rest of the world is general so bear with me. After they hit N. Korea, they broke off communication with the rest of the world and went silent."

The screen changed again to a map of Russia. "The Russians completely dismissed the zombie ideas at first to chemical weapons used by Chechen rebels. They launched a neutron bomb, which is designed to kill human beings but leave buildings intact and the area habitable afterwards. It did not have the desired effect. Almost all of the Chechen controlled areas were still unaffected and when the bomb hit, it turned over a million living people into an army of the Rot in an instant."

Scott paused as a few gasped sounded with in the room. "A little after that, Moscow was overrun and the Russian President took off, we're guessing, to a secured command center somewhere. We haven't had contact with him again. A couple of Russian Generals mobilized their forces and are held up in St. Petersburg. We have been able to maintain communications with them since. We are not sure how long they will last as they are experiencing outbreaks among the civilian population.

"Europe is total chaos still to this day. We only have contact with England, Spain and Germany. They have a few secured military bases where they are housing survivors, but other then that the rest of the continent is considered a dead zone. There might be some more locations that are secure, but frankly we don't know. The information we have are from satellite photos and they have shown a few combat brigades fighting in some of the capitols."

"Africa is completely cut off as well as Japan. Australia has a couple of large secured areas but unfortunately they are not very habitable. We have a couple of battle groups out in the oceans but they are running out of functioning ports."

"Now as some of you are wondering. What next?" Scott saw heads shaking and resumed, "What comes next is simple. We will strive to survive. You will be provided with a choice of available locations and occupations. You will all receive some weapons training and be issued a firearm that you will be required to carry at all times. The reason for this is that although we are still unaware of what exactly is causing this epidemic, it seems that anyone who dies, anyone, will come back. So, unfortunately nowhere is 100% safe. You must understand that. You must be prepared to defend yourself at all times."

Scott started to shake his head and rub his eyes. "One more thing people, if you find yourself about to commit suicide as many before you have. Please, please shoot yourself in the head. We do not encourage suicide but you must understand that if you die any other way, you will come back and become a threat to everybody else. We have already lost entire towns for this very reason"

"Now, with that said, tomorrow you will register your name social and home of residence with our admin department. Your escorts will show you were. They will be able to tell you if you have surviving relatives and maybe if they are confirmed dead. That will be a hard thing to deal with I know, so we have counselors on duty who are willing to help you deal with any emotions or distress."

Jose, Rachel and Samantha sat there absorbing all the information they could from the briefing. They felt inside their souls that the world was slowly dying as they had feared, but there was still hope. Hope for survival. The briefing continued for another 2 hours, outlining any new laws, job opportunities, possible safe living locations and then any questions from the survivors. The briefing then ended with a very brief statement, "One more thing, please do not get attached to your rescuers if you were found by a Search and Rescue team. You may not see them again and we discourage you from making life choices based on where they may be located as it could change for any reason."

Rachel's heart sank.


	10. Unexpected Visitors

Justin and the rest of the squad sat down along with Alpha Team and Gamma Team. The briefing room was brightly lit almost to the point of being uncomfortable. The room was set up in a DRASH tent outside the country club and served as the main military operations debriefing room for the company of soldiers assigned to Search and Rescue Company as part of the government's relief operations in Colorado.

Justin looked around for a guy he knew in Gamma and after spotting him, tried to get his attention. "Hey Williams, what's up man?" He asked.

Williams turned looking for the source of the question and gave a half hearted smile. "Hey, Deleon. What's going on?" Williams replied.

"Just got back this morning. Got us three survivors," he proudly proclaimed.

In a less then cheerful voice, Williams said, "Yeah, us too. Got a mom and her two teenage kids. We got back last night."

"What's wrong then? That's good news," said Justin.

"As you can see were missing a couple of guys here. Conrad and Jacobs bought it last night on mission," he explained.

"Fuck me. What the hell happened?" Justin couldn't believe it. Those two were Rangers.

"Conrad got bit by a goddamn shrieker and freaked out. He snapped its neck and started screaming at the Rot coming down the hallway. He pulled his knife and went at them. Jacobs didn't know he had been bitten and tried to get a hold of him but by the time the rest of us got there with the survivors, they were surrounded and one of them jihaded the bastards before they could turn them into dinner," Williams told him.

"That fucking sucks man. I'm glad you got back ok though. At least it wasn't for nothing, right?"

"Yeah we brought back three but lost two of our own in the process. We can't replace guys like those two anymore. I don't know, I just feel sometimes like this whole thing is going to he…."

"Group! Atennn…Tion!"

Before Williams could finish, Thurman sounded the salute as the Captain walked in to the tent.

"At ease Gentlemen," Captain Reinhold commanded. "Normally this would be the usual debriefing you all have become familiar with, but unfortunately there is a serious problem. Our outpost in Moab, Nevada was overrun this morning, there are no confirmed survivors."

MSG Johnson the leader of Gamma Team spoke up first, "How the hell did that happen, there is no major towns near that location."

"Recon flyovers estimate a Rot horde of one hundred thousand plus moving across the city. The outpost was able to transmit an evac request but the rescue choppers didn't get to them in time," the captain explained to him.

Every one gawked in disbelief with a few choice curse words included.

Thurman asked next, "But that still doesn't explain that size of Rot. Where the hell did they all come from?"

"The recon boys said from the looks of some of them, they're from Vegas," the captain answered.

"Bullshit, how the hell did they get all the way over here with no one noticing?" Another question from MSG Johnson.

"That's the issue. We haven't been looking too hard. The Rot have never strayed too far from where they died unless they were following someone and even then not that far before. We watch the main roads at least but it's possible they could have moved through the wilderness"

"Well, what the hell is command going to do about it?" SSG Gata of Alpha team asked.

"That's the other problem. Apparently our pushes east of here have caught the attention of those bastards in Denver and now they are pushing the quarantine zone trying to move west. Apparently our boys were at little too successful with enlarging the security zone and they moved into Silverton." the captain said.

"Could have been all the noise sir," Thurman offered.

"Hell could have been the rescue team's choppers that they are following," Johnson said next. "Who the fuck knows how these things think or act really"

"For whatever reason, the assault force had decided to make a stand in Silverton. Command doesn't want the Rot coming to far out this way. That commits the bulk of our forces though. Which brings us to you gentlemen," the captain explained.

"We don't have much left to defend the west edge of the green zones while we are engaged in the east. To be honest with you guys I have heard rumors down the chain that if they can stop them in Silverton they might make a try to get Denver back."

Before anyone could comment on that the captain continued, "Just a rumor for now. Anyway, prepare to copy." Captain Reinhold opened a folder he had with him and took out a laser pen. He then pulled down a strip map of the area on the butcher block in the front of the seated teams.

"Alpha and Gamma are going to be moving out with what's left of 2nd armored division. You are going to set up a fortified defensive position here 20 miles south of Cisco on route 128. From there you will recon the areas and locate where the Rot are moving. Once you find them you are to act as forward observers for the artillery and air support that we can scrounge up. You will be given the authority to call in the Bradley's for clean up."

"Bravo, your on stand by at the FDP. If the other teams get into trouble you are their knights in shining armor. Mainly your task is Emergency Evac. You will also be in possession of the limited C-4 amounts that we can spare for use as Alpha and Gamma leaders dictate if the shit hits the fan," The captain finished his briefing and after the details were worked out the teams prepared to leave.

"One more thing folks, the best laid plans last the first 30 seconds of combat. Remember that and be careful out there. Take it to them," and with that the captain left the tent.

************************************************************************

15 hours later…

Justin sat in the Blackhawk as they lowered at the makeshift helipad off of route 128. He looked out at the barricades being erected by the task force from the 2nd Armored. After they had landed and the squad moved out, he finally got a good look at what they had to work with. On the road was a convoy of 15 Bradley fighting Vehicles backed up by 5 M113 Mortar carriers loaded with 120mm mortar systems. Behind the armored vehicles were dozens of 5 tons trucks offloading troops supplies and two had older models 155mm Howitzers that they were towing.

Justin could see a flurry of activity all over the makeshift base as barb wire and sandbags were stacked up on both sides of the bridge that the Task Force commander had chosen for the his defensive position. Justin agreed with the location, there were only two points of entry and only one facing the direction the enemy was spotted coming from. The Rot had been seen moving northwest alongside of 128 and was expected to come right at the bridge. Being on this side had forced them into a bottle neck as they would have to cross the river to get past the task force as it split south near the bridge itself. The rot were not known to cross into water, reports had shown them actually avoiding bodies of water in the past.

As the team moved toward the command tent that was setup on the north side of the bridge Justin thought he saw a group of engineers placing booby traps in the water of the river further south of the position. "_Must not be taking any chances_," he thought to himself.

When they were at the entrance to the tent, a lieutenant colonel stormed out of the structure with a lieutenant in tow. I told you Harris, get those bastards set up now. The recon teams have already spotted those fuck in range," he barked. "This is not happening fast enough. Are my coms up yet?"

"Yes sir, we already have the air force on standby," Lieutenant Harris answered calmly.

"Have they decided what to give us yet?" The colonel asked.

"They were able to give us another A-10 sir, the total is now 8," Harris told him.

"Good, not great but it'll have to do." The colonel turned at the approaching team. "Finally, staff sergeant I need you to take your men over to the 155s and help those idiots set them up. Then get back to my tent and wait for orders."

Thurman was about to protest but realized the importance of getting the artillery up and ready. "Yes sir, move out Bravo."

Half an hour later the artillery and mortars were set up. As Bravo moved back to the command tent as ordered, 2 A-10s streaked over head buzzing the camp. A general cheer went up around the small makeshift base. "Well, looks like the fun has started," Helem commented.

Some distance away, SSG Gata laid with his team on the crest of a hill viewing the dusty landscape ahead of him, one of his privates chattering on the radio. His second in command was peering through the cope of his sniper rifle. "Sergeant, I got movement straight ahead," the soldier told him.

Gata put his binocs to his eyes and looked ahead. In the distance a small number of shambling silhouettes came over the top of a distant hill. As he increased the magnification, he began to see details of the figures. "Yeah definitely Vegas," he said.

"Whys that Sergeant?" he was asked.

"Elvis has risen from the dead," he joked.

After he heard a couple more chuckles from the rest of his team, he face suddenly drained of its dark color.

The soldier next to him noticed and asked, "What is it boss?"

Gata did not answer at first as his noticed the slow shambling figures in the distance were increasing in number. Then slowly the whole horizon became a living mass of death and started moving closer.

"My…god," he finally forced out.

"Private Roy! Get those A-10s on the phone and tell them to get over here now!" He yelled.

The private put the request in over the radio and a moment later Gata could hear the echoing sound of engines in the distance behind him. The squad absently clutched their weapons harder and braced themselves for the hell they were about to see unleashed.

**A/N: Chapter 10, didn't think I'd make this far, but don't worry I will go well past this one. Sorry for the delay. Life you know? This chapter is a bit rushed but I am hoping you enjoy it anyway. You see the rest of the characters in the next chapter. I kind of got bored with them and wanted to get into some action before I continued with their part of the story.**


	11. Enter the Horde

After their orientation briefing Samantha, Jose and Rachel went back to the cafeteria to eat dinner together. As they had left the briefing they had been provided with printouts and questionnaires for the purpose of finding out personal information for locating any surviving next of kin and any current job skills that could help them be placed amongst the remnants of civilization. The three didn't talk very much between themselves as they ate and scanned the documentation. No one felt the need to say anything. They all knew as much about each other as they possibly could after they spent so many weeks together.

The state of the world had been a shock to them and none felt like discussing it as they wrapped their minds around the new world they lived in.

Rachel had seemed a little shaken afterwards even more so then the other two. Samantha knew that almost all of her relatives were living in areas now considered dead zones. She looked at the two page list of jobs that she had picked up and frowned slightly as she got to the second page.

"What's wrong Sam?" Jose broke the silence and asked her after seeing the look on her face.

"These jobs they are offering. Everything seems to be construction or security related. Except for this one in bold letters. Agricultural specialist," she said. "What they should really say is farmhand."

"Would make sense, they are going to need to feed everyone and I doubt the U.S.'s infrastructure is any shape to do it," Jose offered.

"Yeah, I see that but what the hell am I supposed to do now? I don't know shit about farming and I couldn't put a spice rack together without help." Her face had now reflected worry and the sense of hopelessness that they had all felt stuck in that building had started to retake its roots in her heart.

"Well then, why not security?" Rachel chimed in. "Can't be all that difficult. Look at these guys in here. They get to hangout around a country club all day."

"You're kidding right? I would be bored out of my mind not to mention if something did happen I would have to face those things again," Samantha replied.

"I think that's something we are going to have to face someday. This is how the world works now. From what they said, we are lucky there are places left that aren't infested," Jose told her. "We are going to have to adapt if we want to survive."

Afterwards they all went back to their rooms to turn in for the night. Their escorts had excused themselves and told them that from now on they could move freely throughout the facility and that if they needed anything further they would have to deal with facility personnel.

Rachel awoke to the sound of alarms sounding in the distance. She jumped out of bed and rushed to get dressed.

Samantha groaned in her bed and sat up and asked, "Rachel? What's going on?"

"I don't know Sam. There are alarms going off somewhere. You hear it?"

"Yeah, I hear it and I don't know what's going on but if something serious had happened I am sure someone would have come and said something by now," she answered the shaken girl.

As if in response to her statement, a loud knock came at the door causing her to jump and gasp.

Rachel hurriedly opened the door to reveal a young man they had seen working around the club before. "Good morning, my name is John. Don't worry ladies. The military is moving out, that's what the alarms are for."

"Why did something happen?" Rachel asked.

"It's nothing to worry about it is just a small…" John was interrupted as the screaming sound of aircraft engines shook the building.

"Doesn't sound like a nothing to worry about situation if the air force is involved," Jose shouted as he became behind the man. "What the hell is really going on? Are we in danger?"

John turned to look at the newcomer and stared at him blankly. Rachel silently hoped that Justin was okay. She wondered what he was doing right now.

************************************************************************

Justin was at that minute standing inside the command tent listening to Alpha call in for air support. His fellow soldiers of Bravo sitting at a desk going over area maps and trying to find good areas where explosives could wreak the most havoc on the approaching horde of Rot.

"This is ridiculous," Sgt Thompson said to no one in particular.

"I know boss, we should be out calling in those strikes," Helem told him.

"True but the other teams don't have any explosive experts like me and Helem," Thurman said flatly. "Something tells me we'll be seeing plenty of action today so calm down all of you.

"Hey guys…shut up a second and listen," Justin said over the rest of them. "Look like Alphas about to hand out some ass whoopings."

The team listened to the radio as Alpha began to radio in coordinates to the artillery and aircraft. _"I say again, fire mission 243310…_

************************************************************************

Gata watched as the wave of Rot spread out over the stretch of land in front of them. Behind him two A-10 Warthogs flew in. The moans of the Rot were drowned out as the planes passed overhead.

Suddenly but expected, a long whizzing noise sounded above them and Gata and his team stared mesmerized as a long line of red death spat out of the noses of the aircraft. Looking through his binocs, he saw two lines of smoke cut through the ranks of the Rot. What once were people became random body parts flying through the air.

After the first pass the A-10s banked around and turned back toward the horde spread out over a mile. This time after spraying their nose guns at the ground chewing two more destructive lines through the mass of flesh, they armed and dropped a pair of napalm bombs at the front of crowds.

The bombs hit the ground and blew out white hot napalm across the dusty ground spreading itself out creating a large wall of fire between the Rot and the hidden recon team.

As the planes came around again they fired into the crowd once more and released 2 500lb bombs each towards the center of the mass. The bombs exploded throwing out white hot shrapnel outward ripping through dozens of Rot while scores of others were flattened from the shockwave.

Many had caught on fire and were stumbling into one another catching others on fire. After the last pass the A-10s moved off and headed back to Grand Junction for refueling and re-armament. Unknown to the pilots while they had killed a couple hundred of their enemy, many who had been hit or knocked down slowly rose back to their feet and once again stumbled through the flames now in the direction the planes had left.

Gata laid there watching the chaos unfold before him silent and still. As the wall of napalm burned brightly he saw burning figures walking through the flames dropping several feet afterwards. It was not enough. The sheer volume of bodies that surged through the flames began to trample the flames out till they were no longer any threat.

As the team began to call in coordinates for further strikes, the team saw around twenty people break out of the crowd running full speed.

"Sergeant look!" Corporal Richards cried out.

Gata snapped up his binocs and zoomed in on the group of running people. "Shit! Their soldiers."

"Survivors from the outpost? Richards asked.

"Maybe but how did they get through the Rot?" He focused on the lead runner. Holy shit! Shriekers!"

A stream of curses emanated from his team as weapons were cocked and the soldiers began to target the rapidly closing runners.

"Roy, call in a walking barrage between us and the shriekers. Tell the rest of the air support to come in weapons free. Let's try to stop them here and now. Alpha! Open fire the moment any get into range. Don't waste ammo; we are going to need it." Gata finished his orders to his team and readied himself for the battle ahead. Listening to Roy call in the support lifted his spirits. "_Maybe we can do this_," he thought.

************************************************************************

The badly mauled soldiers ran towards their prey. A glint of light from the recon team's equipment had betrayed their presence to the shriekers. They ran to them not tiring or feeling the massive amounts of injuries made to their once living bodies. One of them cocked its head to the side as if hearing something.

It used to be Major Benson a former officer of the 3rd Ranger battalion. He had been assigned as the commander of the outpost till it was overrun and his garrison of 150 soldiers were swarmed and murdered by the unexpected horde of Rot.

He had been surprised to encounter his aid, now turned shrieker burst into his room and attack him. He had killed the aid but not before being bitten. After he had called Grand Junction for help his heart had stopped and he opened his eyes again a few minutes later with a new purpose in the world. Feed…

The former Major Benson slowed to a stop and still held its head cocked to the side. Suddenly it dove to the ground hands over its head.

Seconds later the screaming 155mm "Firecracker" round released a large number of golf ball sized bomb lets which it ejected at altitude over the target area. Upon ejection each bomb let opens canted 'umbrella-like' fins and floats spinning to earth. The fluttering, spinning fall has the appearance of a butterfly in flight. Upon impact a spring on the bottom of the bomb let reacts, throwing the bomb let back into the air and starting a time delay mechanism. When the bomb let rises back to about 6 feet above the ground the delay expires and the bomb let detonates with an energy slightly less than an M26 frag grenade. The effect is that of a low altitude TOT, delivered by one shell. The bomb lets; exploding in quick succession has the sound, at a distance, of a string of firecrackers.

The multiple explosions went off right in the midst of the shriekers shredding 15 of them into rotten confetti almost immediately. The last four in the back of the group that had kept running were serious damaged to the point that no human alive would have survived and knocked off their feet. The Rot, previously known as Major Benson, catching very little shrapnel, stayed unmoving on the ground.

The second round to hit was a High Explosive round that luckily hit the area in the middle of the last four runners that were starting to get up. The shockwave blew their bodies into pieces scattering them for a dozen feet in all directions.

The last Rot in the group removed his shrapnel ridden arms from around its head and stood up sprinting towards the team shrieking an awful sound.

"Holy shit!" Richards yelled over the sound of the impact. "Did that fucker just take cover?"

"You saw that too? Take that little piece of shit out," Gata shouted.

Richards aimed at the last shrieker with his Barrett putting the crosshairs on the neck of the Rot and fired. He realized his had pulled the shot slightly as the round struck the shrieker in the right shoulder removing the arm and causing it to stumble.

The team watched in amazement as the rot recovered and shrieked then began to run again at the team then turning to the right sharply and then turning again to the left as if zigzagging.

"Is that bastard doing what I think its doing?" Gata asked out loud.

"Your damn right it is," Richards answered him. He fired again leading the closing target missing by an inch.

"Enough of this shit," another soldier called and brought his M-4/203 combo to bear. He filled the 203 attachment and sent an HE round towards a point that the rot was running to. At the last second the creature changed direction and the grenade exploded behind it pushing it forward a bit but nothing else.

The Rot had closed to within 30 meters of the team when the soldier reloaded his 203 and fired again this time at the Rot itself. The grenade impacted three feet from the creature taking one of its legs off at the knee.

"Got you know bitch," Richards said softly and put a .50 round into the shriekers forehead as it sat up cracking open the head like an egg.

"This is some serious shit we need to report," Gata stated. "I never saw any of them do that before."

"How could it do that? It's like it knew what we were doing," Roy commented.

Thinking heavily on the situation Gata had been ignoring the horde closing in on their position until he looked up at the carnage before him. The artillery had been firing constantly since it had started working it way into the mass from the front. Hundreds of bodies lay on the ground unmoving in the center of the mass, but the sides were still moving unhindered and began to sweep around towards the now very visible recon team.

"Pull back to evac zone!" Gata yelled. "Move!" He added. The recon team grabbed their equipment and ran northeast, Roy calling for evac. Overhead 6 more A-10s flew over and went to work, the artillery ceasing to fire.

************************************************************************

Back in the command tent Justin and Bravo grabbed their gear and headed out towards their Blackhawk.

"You here that shit that Roy was babbling about on the radio?" he asked Helem.

"Yeah something about a shrieker trying to evade fire or some bullshit," Helem answered as if in disbelief.

"Yeah but if what he says is true man, they might have encountered a new type of Rot," Justin said.

"Smart Rot that know to evade fire? Definitely would chap my ass," Helem replied.

Thompson threw in the question that silenced them all, "What if they all get smart like that and they can get even smarter?


	12. Victories and Defeats

As the Blackhawk descended towards the recon team a few more shreekers had made it very close. The Blackhawk's gunner turned his minigun and let loose a few brief sprays cutting them in half. Justin and Helem jumped down from the cabin as the helicopter landed with a nice little surprise Helem had cooked up as a test trap. Gata and the rest of the recon team climbed aboard as Helem set up his self proclaimed "genius" invention, with Justin taking a few shots towards the horde still approaching with its vanguard now in rifle range.

"I don't know how you come up with shit like that," Justin told him.

"You know me, always got to do funny shit when it's uncalled for," Helem jokingly retorted.

Helem's genius invention consisted of a mannequin dressed in fatigues wearing a suicide vest complete with remote.

"Okay I'm done, let's move," Helem's tone now more serious.

"Just in time", Justin told him over the noise of the Blackhawk, as he saw what appeared to be a large group of supposedly "rare" shreekers break out once again from the front of the horde.

As the two climbed back into the helicopter, the gunner had seen the runners too and began to throw a little lead at them until Helem now back on comms, asked him to cease fire. The Blackhawk began its ascent with the soldiers looking out of the cabin door getting a full show of the A-10s doing what they do best.

The gunner had begun to ask Helem over the radio why he had to cease fire when Thurman interrupted the question and told everyone to take a look at the mannequin.

The Blackhawk now about 100 feet off of the ground held its position as the pilot also decide to see what was going on.

With everyone who could see watching, the first of the group of runners approached the "dummy" actually slowing down a bit. Four of them had moved up to within 3 feet of it, almost cautiously approaching as if trying to find out if this was food or not.

Back in the chopper, Helem fingered his remote and was about the press the button with a shit eating grin on his face when Justin saw something else and held his wrist. Before he could ask why Justin stopped him, the other soldier pointed back down.

As Helem watched, another two runners had caught up and had simply tackled the dummy while the other shreekers looked on, comically cocking their heads to the side as if confused.

At this point Helem pressed the switch and was rewarded with a large explosion that disintegrated the two tacklers and sent the other four flying up and out, flinging their bodies like rag dolls. The troops started laughing loud and cheering over the sound of the engines with those that could reach slapping Helem on the back while he was silently counting the seconds until the shreekers had landed again.

"That's it", he proclaimed over the radio. "Inform the commander that I have discovered a new type of flying Rot. We will call them Dumb Fucks."

Helem's proclamation was met with more laughter as the Blackhawk moved off back towards the barricade.

Over the radio the A-10 Pilots had reported Bingo Ammo and Bingo fuel and headed back towards their base, but not before decimating the horde to a few hundred left up and moving.

Gata radioed back to the barricade and requested that the clean up crew be sent. A full platoon of Bradley Fighting Vehicles was just moving out when they landed with the mortars and artillery firing another barrage aimed at thinning the Rot out a bit more before the they reached them.

None of the soldiers aboard had realized yet that they had indeed met another type of Rot and that this type was not going to be considered a rare occurrence.

After leaving Samantha and Jose, Rachel decided to go back to her room and finish the paperwork that had been given her. She decided to do it in private as she didn't want Jose to see that she had decided to request to be put on a security job and ask that it be here in Grand Junction. She knew Jose and possibly Samantha would think her decision was insane, but she did not want them to find out that it actually was an attempt to stay near Justin. Something about him made her feel normal again, like the world was not the way it was but like the way it used to be. The Major at the briefing said that they specifically should not do this type of thing, but she didn't care she was willing to risk it. A security job here looked fairly simple anyway. You just hung out at the country club making sure everyone did what they were supposed to do. "_It would be easy right_?" She asked herself.

There were a lot of soldiers here and they even had a few tanks. There was no way she would ever have to face the nightmare she had just lived through again. It was safe here.

Later that night the three survivors got together in one the county clubs lounges and decided to watch the news channel. When Samantha had found out that there were still some channels broadcasting she almost jumped with glee. They had a gun safety class tomorrow and decided to take the rest of the night to relax and pretend to be normal again.

The mother and her two teenage boys that they had seen at the briefing came into the room to join them. Samantha greeted the women and asked them their names.

"Hi, I'm Samantha and this is Jose and Rachel," she said politely.

The women looked at Sam suspiciously and instinctively held her two boys behind her and replied very softly, "Hello, I'm Joan and this is Jack and Ryan." After a few seconds of awkwardness Joan relaxed visibly and added, "So..Sorry, the last people we met weren't so friendly."

Samantha frowned, wondering what Joan meant but having a horrible idea of what it could be. "Fair enough," she said. "Do you want to join us?"

"Yes please," Rachel added from one of the sofas.

"Than...Thanks," Joan managed to smile. Her two boys stopped frowning but did not smile, as they all sat together on one of the larger sofas facing the Flat Screen hanging on the wall.

Jose stood up to shake her hand but Joan and both boys immediately took a step back and flinched. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to…its okay I would never do any…" he tried to explain.

"Don't worry about it," Joan managed to say a bit stronger. "As I said, the last people we met were not so friendly."

"What hap...?" Jose tried.

"Don't want to talk about it, "Joan stated in a matter of fact way, cutting him off.

He returned to his seat grimacing as they sat down.

He wondered if it was a man or group of men that did something bad to these people. They seemed to react more to him then they did to Sam.

After that slight incident the group of people began to watch the TV. It was news on each of the 5 channels they could find and Jose who had the remote had decided to stay on Fox news.

"_This is what little video we were able to get from china earlier today as for the first time in a long time somebody was able to make contact with someone from that country_," the young female reported began.

_The video began with a group of Chinese military marching along the road, some wearing flame throwers who were suddenly attacked by a small group of shreekers that came from a large wheat field to their left. The camera man was obviously startled as the video became shaky and started to back up from the scene. The shreekers used to be farmers, that apparent from their dress, and were almost untouched except for a bloody wound here or there. They tackled one of the flame throwers who spun around shooting liquid flame on two of the other soldiers causing them to scream and run. The camera man began to back peddle faster making the video even more jumpy then it was but after a couple more steps he stopped zooming back on the events unfolding. The rest of the soldiers opened fire on the shreekers causing the flamethrower who had been tackled to explode with violent consequences. This knocked the rest of the living down catching some of them on fire as suddenly a Chinese soldier ran in front of the camera firing an Ak-74 in the opposite direction and then finally tossing a grenade. The soldier then ran off into the wheat field even though bits of it were burning and the camera view swung around towards way the last soldier had thrown the grenade. _

The collected audience in the room collectively jumped as the new angle came on screen.

_About 15 Rot had come up behind the camera man with a few more on the ground tearing into two other soldiers who were still trying to fight them off by hitting them with a baton. Then the one soldier on the ground exploded as the grenade went off. You could hear the fear in the camera mans voice even if you couldn't understand the language as he started to back up and then turned around then the camera angle changed drastically as it seemed to be knocked to the ground as the screen became distorted and you could hear screaming and the screeching of a shreeker._

"_That was all we were able get unfortunately and we would like to apologize to our viewers for the grisly scene." _The reported came back on. "_Along with the video was the message that there was a couple of living strongholds left in the country but the military is losing control of the area surrounding them as we just _saw…."

Jose then noticed that the two boys were quietly weeping and even Samantha and Rachel looked shocked. He guessed that in these times, people had most likely seen worse and no one gave a shit about the FCC anymore.

**A/N: I apologize for the huge wait, I switched jobs twice and states once since my last update. This story is not dead and I have a few ideas where I want to go with this. Hoped you like the long over due update.**


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